If you refuse to answer Chael Sonnen’s questions as a guest on his podcast, prepare to get torn to shreds.
The internet went berserk when Cathal Pendred was awarded a contentious decision victory against Sean Spencer on the UFC Fight Night 59 prelims in January.
After enjoying a good start against the American in Boston, Pendred began taking some serious damage and having his takedowns stuffed. While the Punisher had more significant strikes and scored four takedowns in the fight, many felt that his opponent had done enough to take the fight.
However, all three judges scored the fight in favour of the Dubliner. One of the two adjudicators who gave all three rounds to Pendred was Doug Crosby.
The controversial judge made an appearance on Chael Sonnen’s podcast ‘You’re Welcome’ and he managed to get the former UFC middleweight contender worked up into a frenzy.
Sonnen, recognising that Crosby has been involved in some controversial scoring in his career, repeatedly asked him if the UFC judges received any formal training for their job, and each time Crosby dodged the question.
Sonnen: “Would it be helpful if we could talk to judges?”
Crosby: “Would it be helpful to the judges? I don’t know! Would it be helpful to the casual fans? I don’t know. Would it be helpful to the aficionados? I don’t know?”
Sonnen: “Ok, let’s skip all this. On today’s show, Douglas, do you plan to stand on a side or are you just going to walk the fence all day? Because this isn’t a show, this is terrible. I’m bored listening to this.”
“Are you going to take a stance on anything? I want to know straight up. Do you judges have training? I didn’t get an answer. I have no idea what you said. I want to know straight out, should the judges have to come out and defend their calls? I don’t have the foggiest idea what you said.”
Crosby: “Those are two different questions you’re after asking me.”
Sonnen: “Here we go again, now we’re back on the fence, man. I don;t know what to do here. This is a terrible show. I don’t even know if I can run this, it’s that bad. Are you going to do anything today that I can use, man? I’m being serious, this is a terrible show.”
Crosby: “One question…”
Sonnen: “No, I’m going to ask the questions. You agreed to come on the show. You’re not even in a quiet area. You have some girl cackling in the background that allegedly just got into a prestigious college that nobody’s ever heard of and it’s disrespectful and I’m pissed. I’m pissed about this. You would not have done this to anybody else, but you’re doing it to me today.”
“So I want to know, do any of the judges have training or are you just going to walk the fence?… Have you been trained as a judge?”
Crosby was at the heart of another dubious decision at the UFC Fight Night 63 event in Fairfax. Al Iaquinta was awarded the split decision victory over Jorge Masvidal, and the only judge to score the fight in favour of Masvidal was Crosby.
Iaquinta stated after the fight that he felt Crosby never should have been assigned to the fight. Despite agreeing with Crosby’s scoring of the fight, Chael asked whether he thought he should have to defend the way he scored the fight to the media. Crosby continued to dodge the question which only frustrated Sonnen more.
“Man, I just don’t get what’s happening here today. Honest to God, I just don’t understand. I really don’t. At some point you have to show some kind of a courage. You have stand on one side or the other and I won’t argue which side it is. I just need you to fall off the fence.”
“You guys are either trained or you’re not. I’m going to assume you’re not and you’re too embarrassed to admit that. I have no idea why you’d be embarrassed, but I’m going to assume that that’s what happened. you guys aren’t trained, that’s fine.”
This got an incredibly strange response from Crosby.
“(laughs) Are you flirting with me? Is that what this about? Do you think you’re cuter when you’re mad? I think you’re cute enough even when you’re not mad.”
Check out Chael’s meltdown in the podcast embedded below, which begins at around the 28:25 mark.
