Sherdog’s Top 10: Worst Decisions

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4. Evan Dunham vs. Sean Sherk
UFC 119 “Mir vs. Cro Cop”
Sept. 25, 2010 | Indianapolis
It was all falling into place. Dunham had won 11 straight fights to begin his professional career, including four triumphs inside the Octagon. It was expected that victory No. 12, against a former UFC lightweight champion competing for the first time in more than a year, would officially launch the Oregonian into title contention himself.

Instead, Dunham learned a hard lesson about the value of a takedown. More specifically, he was forced to face the reality that many judges reward takedowns over all other forms of offense.

There was little argument that Sherk controlled the opening stanza against his up-and-coming adversary. After surviving a pair of guillotine choke attempts, Sherk grounded Dunham and opened a gash near his right eye with an elbow. From there, it was all Dunham -- or so it seemed. The Xtreme Couture representative did not avoid the takedown entirely, but he was able to quickly return to his feet. More importantly, he dominated the action standing, even wobbling “The Muscle Shark” with a head kick in the final frame.

According to FightMetric, Dunham out-landed Sherk 72 to 32 in significant strikes over the final 10 minutes while defending 12 of his opponent’s 15 takedown attempts. Still, two out of the three cageside judges -- Cecil Peoples and Glenn Trowbridge -- scored the fight 29-28 for Sherk. A third, Kelvin Caldwell, saw it 29-28 for Dunham. Perhaps the most telling stat: Sherk had five takedowns, and Dunham had none.

“It is what it is,” said Dunham, who did receive a $70,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus for his efforts. “You never can tell what the judges are thinking. I do want to win -- always -- but I was just having fun.”

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