Jon Anik is seeking the UFC 314 main event between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes, and after the third round, he felt there was a great case where Volkanovski rose 30-27 on the scorecard. Not everyone agreed to that.
Annique was the leading commentator for Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan alongside Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan for the UFC’s recent pay-per-view event. After the main event ended, Logan said he “needs to get a drug test” after matchmaker Shawn Shelby opposed Annik’s take during the first 15 minutes of the fight. Annik was asked about where the moment came from.
“So I ran there on the air near the end of the third round, saying, ‘Diego Lopez might want to do something here, he’s in danger of going down 3-0,” Anik told MMA Fighting. “Now I don’t know that Sean Shelby is watching me sideways after saying I’m on the air, but then DC continued it with my attention. So I looked down and Maynard and Shelby shouldn’t lose my job.
“And I’ve been doing homework on Round 4 ever since, and maybe I was wrong to criticize (the judge) Saldamat.
Volkanovski won two 49-46 scorecards and 48-47 in historic championship victory. “The Great” was dropped in the second round and looked sensational for most of the fight other than taking a big punch in the fourth round.
After rewatching the battle, Annick understands who, despite these two big moments of Lopez, won the action in Volkanovsky’s clean sweep.
“I think there’s a 50-45 Volkanovski argument based on my kind of research in a retrospective way to rewatch and scoring,” Annick said. “If this could say this in 20 seconds, the biggest punch of the fight landed in round 4. And I am honored and embarrassed by Diego Lopez for not following up.
“I think now you can understand why Monkey won that round for him, but if you land the biggest strike of the fight and you get a little closer to cleaning up the guy, do you think I’m saying?
“But yeah, I mean, I gave Volk 1, 2, 3, and 5.”