Mairon Santos had his hand raised after a 15-minute clash with Francis Marshall at UFC 313, but the decision had many people calling it a robbery on social media.
Santos felt he was the rightful winner when he left the octagon in Las Vegas, saying judges “don’t know sh*t, I won the fight,” but changed his mind upon rewatching the featherweight bout.
Santos told MMA Fighting it’s hard to have a real idea of how the fight is going scoring-wise when you’re the one landing punches and getting hit back, and would have felt robbed Saturday night had the judges gave Marshall the victory.
“I watched the fight, and saw it was closer [than I felt], even on the feet,” Santos said. “I hit him, but he also hit me back. When the fight was over, I felt I clearly won, but that wasn’t the truth. In situations like that, I think takedowns make a difference, so I went back and saw that he had won it. I think it would have been a better decision. But the judges said I won, and I have to live with that. I’m taking it as a loss even though I won, so let’s move on and get better next time.”
Santos was coming off a TUF-winning knockout over Kaan Ofli in August 2024 and admits he was a tad overconfident entering his UFC 313 bout.
“The main thing was that I only brought good things from my previous fight, like knowing I have knockout power and my takedown defense is very good,” Santos said. “Leg kicks, I trained that a lot. I ended up too dependent of those things. I thought I would go there and he would feel the first punch I landed could end the fight. In the end, I couldn’t land a punch the way I wanted, and those I landed he was able to absorb well. I landed several leg kicks and he took them well.
“I’m not happy with my performance,” he continued. “I know I can fight a lot better than that, but I can’t go back in time, it already happened. What I can do it go back to the gym and train and be better next time. That’s what I take away from this fight, the learning and experience.”
Santos said he’s open to a rematch, but doesn’t expect the UFC to book it given it wasn’t a fight with higher stakes between two popular athletes.
In the end, the good thing about having his hand raised was that Santos was paid his win bonus, which is even more important now that he has a newborn at home.
“Deep in there, I didn’t want it to be like that, because we have a code of honor,” Santos said, “But that’s what happened, it’s the reality, and we can’t change it.”
