When Darren Till was announced as the winner of UFC Liverpool headlining bout against Stephen Thompson, a lot of people disagreed. Only three of 25 media members had it for Till, and it seemed to many that Thompson was doing more in the early rounds. Till was given credit for pressing forward and controlling the Octagon, but is that enough to win a fight?

Well if you ask the man that wrote the rules, the answer would be a resounding no.

Big John McCarthy, a longtime referee and judge who now works for Bellator as an analyst, took to Twitter to explain his outlook on the scoring of the fight (which saw Till win with two 49-46 cards and one 48-47 card):

Sorry but controlling the Octagon does not give you the round. @WonderboyMMA landed the cleaner harder shots in the first 3 rounds. Sad that people that are supposed to know about the sport are lacking greatly in their knowledge of what is scored in a round #AskBJM — Big John McCarthy (@JohnMcCarthyMMA) May 27, 2018

He then addressed the statement of a fan, going in-depth with his explanation:

1/2 Thomas, I’m sure I would like you too, but just because the UFC puts something on its broadcast doesn’t mean it is scored like that. So you know, striking & or grappling will be the sole determinant of who wins a round unless they are exactly equal, then u bring in aggression https://t.co/hVtVa5jdAn — Big John McCarthy (@JohnMcCarthyMMA) May 28, 2018

2/2 if that is equal then the last element the judge will use is cage or Octagon Control. Oh and so you know, I’m pretty sure about this because I wrote it https://t.co/hVtVa5jdAn — Big John McCarthy (@JohnMcCarthyMMA) May 28, 2018

Finally, he talks about how the fight stats are collected, and brings up an interesting point:

So tell me who is the person pushing the button on what they believe to be a significant strike? It’s just a TV guy. 2nd all punches, kicks, knees etc are not the same. This is where people start to get confused when assessing who is winning a fight #AskBJM https://t.co/Vph0ycVB52 — Big John McCarthy (@JohnMcCarthyMMA) May 28, 2018

In the end it won’t change anything since the fight is over and done with, but McCarthy (who runs his own refereeing course) certainly didn’t agree with the judges who scored the fight yesterday in Liverpool.