UFC 292 saw two rising bantamweight contenders Mario Bautista and Da’Mon Blackshear go at it for three rounds. With the bantamweight title being defended in the main event, both fighters had a chance to make a name for themselves and stand out amongst the pack. While Sean O’Malley’s teammate, Bautista, got the job done. the commentators Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier were not really thrilled with it.
To be precise, it is not because they were unhappy with the performance of Bautista. Instead, it had more to do with the judges’ decision. While Da’Mon Blackshear could not end the bout strongly, he certainly had his moments, especially early on in the fight. However, from the middle of round two, it was Bautista, who slowly took over and got the job done with a unanimous decision.
Mario Bautista by unanimous decision!@Bautista_MMA takes the win over Da’Mon Blackshear on the #UFC292 main card 👊 pic.twitter.com/DyE3wxpLCN
— UFC (@ufc) August 20, 2023
While judges, Sal D’amato and Chris Lee, both had the fight 28-29, judge Steve Rita scored it 27-30. As soon as Bruce Buffer was done announcing the decision, Joe Rogan called it out live during the PPV broadcast right away. He did not think the 30-27 card for Bautista painted an accurate picture of the fight. Even his co-commentator, the former UFC double champ, Daniel Cormier was in full agreement with Rogan.
Da’Mon Blackshear vs Mario Bautista at UFC 292: Punching stats
With Joe Rogan disagreeing with the scorecard from Judge Steve Rita, it is only fair to take a look at the stats to see if the commentator is right or not. As per UFC Stats, Da’Mon Blackshear landed 29 significant strikes and 38 strikes in total. In comparison, Baustista only had 27 strikes in total and 19 of them were significant. In round two, Blackshear’s significant strike tally was 40 and he had 44 strikes in total.
In the same round, Mario Bautista had 34 total strikes and 32 significant strikes. While in round one, Blackshear landed 4 takedowns out of 5 attempts, he failed to get any takedowns in the second round. However, the fight completely turned in Mario’s favor in the final round where he managed 2 takedowns out of 5 attempts. As far as strikes are concerned, Bautista had 28 significant strikes and 41 total strikes!
Da’Mon Blackshear/Mario Bautista scorecards#UFC292 pic.twitter.com/MJwNf1tQFX
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) August 20, 2023
Da’Mon, on the other hand, had a significantly decreased output with 21 significant strikes and 26 total strikes. In total, Bautista had 4:04 minutes of ground control and Blackshear had 3 minutes of ground control. Hence the scorecards of 29-28 for Mario make a ton of sense. However, Rita’s 30-27 card remains a mystery as Da’Mon was clearly the better fighter in the first round.
Regardless, Mario Bautista remains an exciting talent in the bantamweight division. However, with his training partner Sean O’Malley fighting for the belt in the main event, it will be interesting to see what happens going forward if O’Malley grabs the belt and Mario makes his way to the top of the division. So what are your thoughts on the fight? Let us know in the comments down below.