Australia’s Jack Della Maddalena is coming off a hard-fought victory over Belal Muhammad. “JDM” dethroned the American via unanimous decision and was crowned as the new UFC Welterweight Champion.
The judges’ scorecards for the matchup subsequently set the MMA community abuzz. A number of fight fans have chimed in by criticizing the scoring, which they believe could’ve led to Della Maddalena being robbed of a deserved win.
Fans React Sharply After Scorecards Hint That Jack Della Maddalena Almost Faced a ‘Robbery’ at UFC 315
Della Maddalena’s welterweight title victory over Muhammad headlined the UFC 315 event on Saturday, May 10, 2025. The three official judges for the bout were Mike Bell, Eric Colon, and David Therien.
Bell and Therien both scored rounds one and four for Muhammad while giving his opponent rounds two, three, and five. Meanwhile, Colon only scored round four for the American, and he awarded rounds one, two, three, and five to Della Maddalena. The judges handed out 10-9 scores in each round across the scorecards.
Overall, Bell and Therien’s scorecards read 48-47, while Colon’s read 49-46, all in favor of Della Maddalena.
Taking to X, various fans reacted to the scorecards, with one writing, “This is f**king insane.” The fan also seemed to allude to Della Maddalena’s vicious striking onslaught against Muhammad in the fight’s fifth and final round, tweeting, “They were about to f**king rob JDM if he doesn’t almost kill him in round 5. I want to vomit. The sport is crooked.”
One X user emphasized that it’d have been one of the worst scorecard robberies ever, tweeting, “That would’ve been THE WORST robbery of all time.”
Alternatively, some fans speculated that the scorecards weren’t that egregious, implying that Muhammad made the fight a closely contested one and not a shutout for Della Maddalena. A commenter opined, “What’s wrong? Reasonable cards.”
Nevertheless, others underscored that scoring round one was Muhammad was a glaring error. One observer questioned, “In what Funking universe did Funking Belal win RD1 ???????????????” Another fan similarly wrote, “These judges are awful. Round 1 was so clearly JDM..”
A netizen appeared to jibe at the current MMA judging landscape but praised Eric Colon, “This is actually insane the state of judging is awful right now, Eric had the right scorecard.” Akin to that, another fan lauded Colon, “Respect to Eric Colon, seems like he was the only judge who watched the fight.” One fan asserted, “Two judges scored first round to Belal? I don’t understand what is happening anymore with UFC judges.”
In the aftermath of their fight, Della Maddalena was called out by Muhammad’s training partner, current UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev. Presently, the consensus is that Della Maddalena is likely to defend his UFC welterweight championship against Makhachev next. Meanwhile, Muhammad vowed to reemerge stronger from his championship loss.