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Morning Report: Judge who rendered controversial score against James Krause at UFC 247 revealed to have ties to Trevin Giles, Krause responds

February 19, 2020
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Two weeks ago at UFC 247 in Houston, one of the main talking points after the card finished was the number of controversial judges’ decisions that were rendered. Now it turns out the. controversy may be only just beginning.

Among the controversial scorecards rendered on the night was a 29-28 decision from judge Joe Soliz in favor of Trevin Giles over James Krause. At first glance that scorecard is defensible; however, Soliz scored the first round for Giles, a round that nearly unanimously was scored for Krause as he achieved back control and held onto it for a sustained period of the round. Had Soliz scored the first round for Krause and the other rounds thee same fashion he did, Krause would have won the bout instead. And now to make matters worse, yesterday news broke that Soliz actually has a connection to the gym Giles trains out of.

As first reported by TSN, Soliz received his BJJ black belt from Eric Williams in 2008, the same Eric Williams who is the head coach of Giles and was cornering him at UFC 247. For what it’s worth, Soliz is also friends on Facebook with Giles. When asked about the conflict of interest, Soliz told TSN that he has not “been in contact or associated with that gym in over eight years”. Similarly, Williams told TSN that he has not spoken to Soliz in “probably a year and a half or two years”. But despite the assurances that from both parties that this was not a big deal, there’s one person who isn’t buying it: James Krause.

Upon learning of Soliz’s apparent conflict of interest, Krause was justifiably upset and voiced his frustrations on Instagram.

If this isn’t the most frustrating sh*t for me in the world I don’t know what... how is this not a conflict of interest? Training at someone’s gym for 10+ years and receiving a black belt from the coach corner[ing] my opponent.

I no way am I mad I lost the fight, it was close. 1 was mine, 2 was his, and 3 was a toss up. But round 3 was given to me on 2/3 cards. It was round 1 they scored for him. After a take down and almost 4 minutes of back control, not to mention almost finishing the RNC, I don’t know how they would give that round to him. This sport has been around for too long to not start making changes. I know the Texas State Athletic Commission wont do a damn thing about my fight. They never do but I hope the UFC, Dana White, and the state commissions can come together to actually make the judging for OUR sport, not boxing and hold the people doing these jobs accountable.This is a disgrace to our sport. Not just my fight but multiple examples of incompetence from the same judge.

So frustrated to even read this sh*t... and remember I lost half my purse because of this guy.

Krause also went on SiriusXM radio’s MMA Tonight where he addressed the issue:

“It’s really discouraging whenever I leave the fight and I think I won and then they call his name,” Krause said. “When it happened I was like, ‘Man, it was a close fight. I can’t really complain. I should’ve done more. I tried to leave it all out there. 18 hours notice is easier said than done but Round 3 is not the discrepancy. Round 1 is the discrepancy that caused me to lose the fight and man, I just can’t get over that. I lose sleep over that. I just can’t understand how that’s possible. So what that tells me is that dude was never going to give me a fair shake anyway. So he gave him Round 1, obviously Trevin won Round 2, and he’s like, ‘I’m gonna give this dude Round 3 because he’s already lost the fight anyway.’ I never had a fair shake.”

Krause’s manager has said that they intend to appeal the decision.

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VIDEO STEW

UFC 248 promo.

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LISTEN UP

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Oh good. This is still happening. And Henry is doubling down.

First.

If Lima wins, they probably should. Even though I’m one of the most vocal opponents of a 165 division.

Fight week.

Feels like the champ should be the one with the rear-view mirror.

View this post on Instagram

Be careful. #ufc249 is coming

A post shared by Khabib Nurmagomedov (@khabib_nurmagomedov) on

That’s quite the picture.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

N/A.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Holy sh*t is that a bad look for Texas. That scorecard on its own was enough to get Soliz fired but couple it with this and it’s hard to draw any other conclusion here besides the worst one. Krause is totally justified in being furious.

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

EXIT POLL

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