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UFC 315 star hits back at robbery claims from Daniel Cormier, Dominick Cruz and fans

Originally posted on Bloody Elbow
By Christopher De Santiago | Last updated May 13, 2025 12:19 AM ET

Modestas Bukauskas has responded to backlash surrounding his controversial UFC 315 win.

In a night that saw a new welterweight champion crowned in Jack Della Maddalena and a pound-for-pound queen remain in Valentina Shevchenko, the UFC 315 undercard featured a split decision that had many scratching their heads.

At light heavyweight, former Cage Warriors Champion Modestas Bukauskas battled UFC veteran Ion Cutelaba with neither man finding the finish in 15 minutes.

While Cutelaba wasn’t able to land too many clean shots, ‘The Hulk’ did throw 94 more strikes than Bukauskas and doubled his total striking numbers. Bukauskas largely failed to pull the trigger up until round 3.

Going the distance, Bukauskas was awarded the decision with one judge scoring all 3 rounds for him and the other judge scoring rounds 2 and 3 for ‘The Baltic Gladiator’.

UFC commentator Daniel Cormier called the scorecards ‘trash’ from the broadcast booth, many in the community following suit with cries of ‘robbery’, thinking Cutelaba had won rounds 1 and 2.

Modestas Bukauskas replies to ‘robbery’ claims

Cormier said Bukauskas was awarded a ‘bad decision’ with Dominick Cruz not understanding it either, suggesting the UFC put a profile picture of judge Pasquale Procopio, who had scored the fight 30-27 in favor of Bukauskas.

A few days removed from the result, Bukauskas has heard all the comments from both the commentators and the fans.

“Robbery?” Bukauskas wrote on Instagram.

“It may not have been my best performance. But I still feel I WON that fight.

“We had some great exchanges, and I definitely landed more cleanly.

“Whatever the opinion, it was a good fight between 2 high level competitors. Onwards we go. Gonna learn, improve, get better and perform better next time.”

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A post shared by Modestas Bukauskas (@modyb24)

UFC 315 judge also had Aiemann Zahabi winning against Jose Aldo

Another split decision on the UFC 315 card that caught a lot of flak was Aiemann Zahabi’s win over Jose Aldo.

Aldo had a pretty strong start in round 1 and fought a decent round 2, with Zahabi outlanding the former champ by only one strike.

In round 3, Aldo dropped Zahabi twice and nearly knocked him out with strikes before Zahabi mounted a near-finish on the ground in the final two and a half minutes of the fight.