Johnson, McCall ready for UFC flyweight rematch
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 03: Demetrious Johnson, left, and Ian McCall fight in the flyweight tournament semifinal at UFC on FX at Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. (March 3, 2012) Credit: Getty
Complaints about the way fights are scored are commonplace in mixed martial arts. Fighters, seemingly ahead on the scorecards, often press during the latter stages of a fight in the hopes of a knockout or submission to eliminate the risk of a questionable decision.
What occurred to Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall in March took judging to a new low.
Johnson was declared the winner on two scorecards and earned a draw on the other to defeat McCall and move on to the finals of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's flyweight tournament.
After the card went off the air, however, a mathematical error was discovered. One of the rounds originally counted as 10-9 was actually scored 10-8 by a judge. When the math was corrected, the judge's scorecard read 28-28, and the fight was declared a majority draw.
McCall, who already spoke with UFC president Dana White following the fight, was summoned back for a second meeting.
"Dana had already talked to me and they told me Dana wanted to talk to me again," McCall said. "I was like, 'Really? OK.' At that point it was just getting kind of annoying. I didn't want to talk to people. I just wanted to deal with (the loss)."
White informed both Johnson and McCall of the error and the new decision for the fight. A potential fourth round, which would have been contested if the result were tabulated correctly at the fight's conclusion, was no longer an option, and Johnson and McCall were scheduled for a rematch to decide who advanced to the tournament finale.
"You can tell (Johnson) was bummed about it," McCall said. "He was upset by the situation way more than I was."
Friday night, the duo will meet again in the main event of UFC on FX 3. The card, which will be held at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., will air live on FX at 9 p.m. EDT/6 p.m. PDT. The Johnson-McCall winner will face Joseph Benavidez, who knocked out Yasuhiro Urushitani on the March card, for the chance to be crowned the UFC's first-ever flyweight champion.
"It's a dream come true," McCall said. "Just being in the UFC is a dream come true, but being the very first champion, that's just something that's going to put me in the record books. I'm very excited for it."
The remainder of the televised card features welterweights Erick Silva vs. Charlie Brenneman, welterweights Mike Pyle vs. Josh Neer and bantamweights Eddie Wineland vs. Scott Jorgensen.
The preliminaries, which can be seen live on Fuel TV at 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT, include: welterweights Mike Pierce vs. Carlos Eduardo Rocha; welterweights Seth Baczynski vs. Lance Benoist; featherweights Leonard Garcia vs. Matt Grice; bantamweights Dustin Pague vs. Jared Papazian; lightweights Tim Means vs. Justin Salas; light heavyweights Buddy Roberts vs. Caio Magalhaes.
Additional preliminaries, which can be seen live at www.facebook.com/UFC at 5 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. PDT, include lightweights Henry Martinez vs. Bernardo Magalhaes and welterweights Jake Hecht vs. Sean Pierson.
