Serhiy Sidey was happy to walk away from UFC Edmonton with a victory, although he didn’t think he was going to when the final horn sounded.
Sidey faced Garrett Armfield in a preliminary bantamweight bout on Saturday’s Fight Night card at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada. After three rounds, Sidey was awarded the split decision win, which much of the MMA community didn’t agree with.
Close fight but I felt Armfield took RDs 1&3. Another reason why judges should explain their ruling so that us fighters and coaches can assess the fights in real time to help us make decisions to possibly win back the RD or finish the fight.
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) November 2, 2024
Ain’t no way bruh lmfao I’m mad for armfield
— Terrance McKinney (@twrecks155) November 2, 2024
Wow. These judges continue to screw guys!
— Michael Johnson (@Menace155) November 2, 2024
“That was a very close fight,” Sidey said in his post-fight scrum. “First two rounds, very close, I might’ve edged those out. Lost that third round. When the judges were scoring the scorecards, personally, I thought I lost. I’ll be honest.
“I’ve got to re-watch that fight. I know I hurt him bad in the first two rounds, had some very close submissions, I got a split decision win today.”
Armfield, as expected, wasn’t thrilled with the two judges that scored it for Sidey, going as far to joke in a since-deleted tweet that someone should “investigate these judges” and tagging UFC CEO Dana White and Donald Trump. He later made it clear that he wasn’t serious.
Just to clarify, I do not actually think the judges need to be investigated @BloodyElbow
Split decisions are apart of the sport and you are not going to be on the “right” end every time.
I was attempting to be humorous after the fight ended that way.— Garrett Armfield (@Armfield135) November 3, 2024
Despite the controversy, Sidey officially has a UFC victory on his résumé. After earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series with a controversial knockout win against Ramon Taveras, the UFC rebooked the pairing at UFC 297, and Taveras earned a split decision victory.
For Sidey, he’ll chalk off Saturday’s fight with Armfield as a win and a lot of valuable lessons learned sharing the cage with someone he respects.
“Garrett came out and that was the hardest fight I’ve ever had, I think,” Sidey said. “He mixed up his wrestling really well and good boxing, the strongest 135er I’ve ever fought, for sure. That dude had some crazy strength.
“A lot of things I can learn from this fight. I want to come back stronger.”
