Dana White explains how he scored controversial Silva vs. Brunson fight

Last night, in the co-main event of UFC 208, former middleweight king and veritable MMA legend Anderson “The Spider” Silva attempted to correct a four-year win drought against rising middleweight contender Derek Brunson.

After three slow rounds of action, which saw Brunson hesitate to engage, and Silva wait for rare opportunities to counter, Silva succeeded on this mission, capturing a unanimous decision victory.

Not everyone, however, agreed with this result. Shortly after the judges announced, the MMA Twittersphere resounded with the voices of frustrated dissenters who scored the fight for Brunson – many of whom gave him all three rounds.

One of the more notable members of the MMA community to score the fight for Brunson was UFC President Dana White.

The head honcho explained his scorecard on the Fox Sports 1 UFC 208 post-fight show.

“I had Brunson [winning the fight],” White said. “I actually had the fight 1-1 going into the third round, and I gave the third round to Brunson.” 

White went on to explain that he had received several texts from a frustrated Brunson, who was not happy that the judges’ controversial decision would deprive him of a win bonus.

“Brunson sent me a text,” White said. “He’s obviously very upset, and you know, he said, ‘listen, this is how I support my family. And now I won’t get my win bonus when I feel like I won the fight.’ But it’s one of those things, man. I say it all the time. If you don’t want to get screwed by the judges, don’t let it go to the judges.”

“It has nothing to do with me. You can text me, and I can feel for him, but it has nothing to do with me. You have to beat your opponent, and you have to beat the judges, unfortunately. That’s the business.”

Do you agree with Dana White’s assessment of this fight? How did you score it? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/12/2017.