After UFC San Antonio Loss, Steven Peterson Lobbies for Judges to be Ex-Fighters

Going to work!

Can @8Ocho08 get sub No. ? #UFCSanAntonio pic.twitter.com/s7vqx1IjRb

— UFC (@ufc) July 21, 2019

Steven Peterson feels robbed.

When his fight against Alex Caceres went to the distance, Peterson, along with many other observers, thought he had won the fight. According to MMADecisions.com, seven media members gave the fight to “Ocho” — yet it was “Bruce Leeroy” who got his hand raised via unanimous decision.

Now, following the loss, Peterson opened up on it to Sherdog, and what he thinks needs to change in terms of Texas commission.

“I think the Texas commission needs to hold themselves to a higher standard. People need to be more qualified before they put people’s careers and livelihood in their hands,” he explained. “It is another loss on my record, which hurts deeply and also a financial loss as well. It sucks to have that taken away from me. I have been robbed in Texas before. They are all close fights in, which my losses are, and this takes the cake.”

Part of the reason why Peterson is upset is the fact that Jennie Cardenas, who submitted a 30-27 scorecard in favor of Caceres, was judging just her sixth UFC fight.

Following the loss, Peterson spoke to a number of people in the UFC, including matchmaker Sean Shelby, who told him he did not lose that fight.

“Everybody single person I talked to within the UFC said I won the fight. Paul Felder had a watch party and said I won the fight. People backstage were apologizing to me for getting robbed,” Peterson said. "After the fight I went and shook Sean Shelby’s hand and he didn’t agree with the decision as well. In my opinion I won that fight, and Texas won’t appreciate that.”

Even though he is from Texas, Peterson admits after another frustrating loss by the judges he won’t fight in the state again until something is done. He believes judges need to be ex-fighters or have MMA experience, as he claims many currently don’t know how to judge the grappling and wrestling department.

“Until something is done about the judges and the commission I won’t fight in Texas. Judges need to have fighting experience, or some sort of qualification,” he said. “They shouldn’t be able to judge unless you have done it themselves.”