Michael Chandler was given a score of 10-8 by judge Sal D’Amato for his first-round against Charles Oliveira at UFC 262

The UFC 262 main event saw Charles Oliveira become the 11th lightweight champion in UFC history. However, it wasn’t an easy ride to strike gold for the Brazilian.

Despite starting the first round well, he was dominated in the later half of the first round after suffering a knock down due to the explosive power of ‘Iron Mike’.

The Brazilian then went berserk in the second round, beating Chandler just 19 seconds into the round.

Oliveira was elated and overcome with emotion, as he became the first Brazilian since Rafael dos Anjos in 2015, to become the lightweight champion.

There was a little bit of controversy about the way the first round was scored. It was learned that two of the judges had scored 10-8 in favour of Chandler.

A lot of MMA experts and commentators, notably Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping blasted the judges for giving a 10-8.

One of the judges, Sal D’Amato who gave the highly criticized 10-8, justified his stance saying that ‘their’ judging had a criterion – A significant damage caused by a fighter against his opponent is enough for scoring a 10-8.

In an interview with MMA Junkie, D’Amato claimed that Oliveira was almost finished in the first round and hence there was nothing wrong in awarding 10-8:

“Our criteria also states that a 10-8 round, if a fighter damages his opponent and doesn’t need to dominate the entire round. Well, I would say that Oliveira was damaged in that round. He was close to being finished…Now, of course, Oliveira had his moments – took his back, took him down. To me, he wasn’t really threatening from the back.” [via MMA Junkie]

Charles Oliveira now awaits the winner of Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier 3

Oliveira has been an unsolvable puzzle of late. His opponents have had no clue to his ground-game.

His first title defense will be against two impressive strikers Dustin Poirier or Conor McGregor. But, they aren’t as efficient as Oliveira is on the ground, especially McGregor.

Oliveira will be banking on his immaculate Brazilian jiu-jitsu abilities when he takes on any of the two tough lightweights.

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