UFC 305 judge axed on the spot for ‘one of the worst scorecards ever’ in Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Tai Tuivasa fight

A UFC judge was stood down from the co-main event on Saturday night after turning in a shocking scorecard.

Before Dricus du Plessis submitted Israel Adesanya to retain his middleweight title in the UFC 305 headliner, Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Tai Tuivasa duked it out in a heavyweight clash.

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Rozenstruik looked to be a comfortable winner when the final horn sounded in Perth yet judge Howie Booth scored the fight 30-27 to Tuivasa.

Luckily, the other two judges had it 30-27 and 29-28 in Rozenstruik’s favour meaning the right man got his hand raised.

But Booth’s scorecard caused quite a stir on social media.

One fan wrote: “30-27 for Tai Tuivasa might be one of the worst scorecards ever recorded. Fire that judge immediately.”

Another posted:  “Howie Booth needs to be investigated and never let inside another UFC event. A 30-27 is without a doubt, one of the, if not the worst scorecards of all time.”

A third tweeted: “This is absolutely worthy of instant dismissal. Not being dramatic either. Howie Booth you are mentally off and don’t ever judge another fight again. A fucking 30–27????

Somebody else added: “Where is there a single round for Tai and how could you possibly give him all three? Howie Booth had to have just filled his scorecard out wrong.”

Meanwhile, UFC lightweight Jared Gordon remarked: “The judges are allowed to just do whatever they want I guess…”

Booth had been due to judge the flyweight co-feature attraction between Kai Kara-France and Steve Erceg but was relieved of his duties and replaced by Ben Cartlidge.

Explaining the situation to assembled media, UFC executive David Shaw said: “Don’t forget that the Western Australian Combat Sports Commission are the lead committee here.

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“They are responsible for all of those decisions. I guess someone made the call that the performance was probably not worth keeping them [Booth] involved for the rest of the night…

“It’s good checks and balances, everybody needs to be held to a high standard.

“If I don’t do my job or you don’t do your job maybe it’s good to sit on the bench for a while and reconsider the work.

“Try to figure out how to get back on track and do a better job next time. I think generally in life that’s a decent principle.

“But it’s not for me to say whether it was right or wrong from the commission.”