Boser calls out MMA judges ahead of UFC Edmonton bout with Diniz

Tanner Boser has taken aim at the qualifications of MMA judges, arguing that officials who have never competed in combat sports lack the expertise to score fights accurately — comments made ahead of his heavyweight bout against Jhonata Diniz on Oct. 17 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.

Speaking at UFC Edmonton media day, Boser acknowledged that judges get most decisions right, but said the consequences of their errors fall disproportionately on the fighters themselves. “They get way more right than they do wrong,” he said. “But it’s just that when they get something wrong, it affects somebody’s life in a very, very significant way. It is what it is. It’s just an imperfect system.”

Boser was pointed about the background of those sitting cageside. “Who are the judges? Were they fighters? Because if they are not, you don’t really know your logic. Were they boxers? Because that’s kind of different too. But a lot of the time the judges are just a guy. You want me to sit there and score figure skating? I don’t know what I’m watching. That’s kind of what is going on with some of them.”

The Canadian heavyweight drew on personal experience to illustrate his frustration. He lost back-to-back decisions to Andrei Arlovski in 2020 and Ilir Latifi in 2021, accepting responsibility for the Arlovski defeat but maintaining he deserved the nod against Latifi. “Every now and then there is one score wrong where my mom watching at home knows who won that fight,” he said. “And you know who won that fight; I know who won that fight. How the hell did this guy whose job it is didn’t know who won that fight.”

Boser enters the Diniz contest on the back of a stoppage loss to Gokhan Saricam, which snapped a two-fight winning streak. A victory in front of a home crowd in Edmonton would go some way to restoring his standing in the heavyweight division — and, in his view, leave the result beyond any judge’s interpretation.