UFC 327 Just Had One of the Most Embarrassing Scoring Errors in Years and Chris Padilla Paid the Price

Bro UFC 327 hadn't even gotten to the title fight yet and the night was already a disaster. Chris Padilla beat MarQuel Mederos. Got his hand raised. Celebrated in the cage like he just won the biggest fight of his life. And then the UFC walked it back minutes later because someone couldn't do basic addition.

Let me set the scene because this whole thing is wild. Chris Padilla and MarQuel Mederos fought on the UFC 327 prelims tonight in Miami. Three rounds, lightweight, the kind of scrappy fight nobody outside hardcore fans is paying close attention to. Until it became the most controversial moment of the night.

Mederos poked Padilla in the eye. Then he poked him in the eye AGAIN in the third round. Two eye pokes from the same guy in the same fight. Referee Keith Peterson saw enough and took a point off Mederos for the second foul, which is the right call.

Then the scorecards came in and Bruce Buffer announced Padilla as the winner by majority decision. Two judges had it 29-27 Padilla. One had it 28-28. Padilla's hand goes up. He's celebrating. His team is hugging him. The whole thing is over.

Except it wasn't over.

The Math Didn't Math

Minutes after the announcement, the UFC broadcast had to come back and correct what just happened. Judges Derek Cleary and Eliseo Rodriguez did NOT actually have the fight 29-27. They both had it 28-28 BEFORE the point deduction was factored in. Once you take the point off Mederos for the second eye poke, those 28-28 cards become 28-27 Padilla, not 29-27.

That's still a Padilla win on the cards individually. But here's where it gets dumb. The third judge had it 28-28 from the start, which means after the deduction his card was actually 28-27 Mederos? No wait, the third judge already had it tied so the deduction makes it 28-27 Padilla on his card too.

But that's not what happened. The official corrected result came back as a MAJORITY DRAW.

So Padilla went from "winner by majority decision" to "majority draw" in the span of about 10 minutes. He didn't lose the fight. He just stopped winning it. On a math error. After getting poked in the eye twice. By a guy who lost a point for doing it.

I don't even know how to describe how brutal that is for a fighter, dude. You spend an entire camp preparing. You take two eye pokes during the fight. You hear your name called as the winner. You celebrate. And then while you're still in the cage smiling, the UFC tells you "actually we did the math wrong, you didn't win, here's a draw, good luck with that."

That's a complete robbery.

Where Have I Heard Keith Peterson's Name Before

Okay so here's the part that made me sit up. The referee in this fight was Keith Peterson. Hold that name in your head for a second.

Because if you've been following CageLore, you already know Keith Peterson was the same ref who let Tofiq Musayev grab the fence with both hands and headbutt Ignacio Bahamondes without taking a single point. That fight completely changed after the fouls. Musayev won by decision and the UFC gave him a $100K Fight of the Night bonus for it.

I'm not even hating on Keith Peterson here. He actually made the right call tonight. He took a point from Mederos for the second eye poke, which is exactly what he should've done. So this isn't a Keith Peterson problem in the same way the Musayev fight was.

But it's still wild to me that the same ref keeps showing up in fights where the result becomes the story instead of the fighting. Two cards in a row now. Musayev gets away with grabbing the fence and headbutting his opponent and gets paid $100K. Padilla gets the win taken away from him on a math error after his opponent poked him in the eye twice. The common trend is chaos.

The Bigger Problem

Here's what should make every MMA fan a little uncomfortable. The judges' scorecards are supposed to be the most basic part of this sport. Three people watch the fight, write down a number for each round, add it up at the end. That's it. That's the whole job.

And in 2026, with the UFC making more money than it ever has, with the Paramount deal flowing billions of dollars in, with the White House card coming in two months, two of the three judges at a UFC numbered event couldn't get the addition right after a point deduction. Then the official who reads the cards announced the wrong result. Then it took the broadcast team multiple minutes to catch the mistake and walk it back.

If that happens in any other professional sport, it's a national story. If an NFL ref miscounts the score on a touchdown and the wrong team gets credited for the win for 10 minutes, that's the front page of every sports site for a week. In MMA, it's a Saturday night on a prelim card and we all just kind of move on.

Real talk for a second though. Chris Padilla is the one who gets screwed here. He doesn't get a win bonus. His record gets a draw on it instead of a W, which matters for matchmaking and matters for his next contract. He took two eye pokes for it. And the UFC apologized to him by saying "our bad" and moving on.

Mederos doesn't get punished beyond the point deduction he already had. The judges face zero public accountability. The official who announced the wrong result doesn't get named. And the only person who actually loses anything tangible is the fighter who already had the worst night of anyone in the building.

Make it make sense.

What Happens Now

The result is officially a majority draw. Padilla doesn't get to appeal that, even though half the MMA world saw him win. There's no rematch automatically booked. The Florida State Boxing Commission could theoretically revisit it but commissions almost never overturn results once they've been corrected.

The best Padilla can hope for is the UFC giving him a softer matchup next time and a chance to bounce back. Maybe a Fight of the Night bonus down the line to make up for it. Maybe a Performance of the Night out of pity. The UFC does take care of guys who get screwed sometimes when it's this obvious.

But the fight itself is in the books as a draw. The points he should have on his record are gone. And tomorrow morning the only thing anyone is gonna remember from this card is whatever happens in Prochazka vs Ulberg, while Padilla is gonna be sitting in his hotel room staring at the ceiling wondering how he won and lost the same fight in 10 minutes.

This sport, dude.

Thanks for riding with CageLore. Stay locked in!

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened in the Padilla vs Mederos fight at UFC 327?

Chris Padilla and MarQuel Mederos fought on the UFC 327 prelims in Miami on April 11, 2026. Mederos poked Padilla in the eye twice during the fight. Referee Keith Peterson took a point from Mederos in the third round for the second eye poke. Padilla was initially announced the winner by majority decision, but the UFC corrected the result to a majority draw minutes later because of a scoring error.

What was the scoring error?

Two of the three judges, Derek Cleary and Eliseo Rodriguez, were originally reported as having scored the fight 29-27 for Padilla. The actual scores were 28-28 before the point deduction was factored in, which made the correct final result a majority draw, not a majority decision win for Padilla.

Who was the referee for the fight?

Keith Peterson refereed the bout. He's the same referee who was in charge of the Tofiq Musayev vs Ignacio Bahamondes fight where Musayev grabbed the fence and headbutted his opponent without losing a point.

Did Chris Padilla appeal the decision?

The result was changed almost immediately by the UFC broadcast. Once a result is officially recorded with the commission, appeals are extremely rare and almost never overturn the final ruling.

Will there be a rematch?

No rematch has been announced. The UFC may book Padilla a favorable next matchup to compensate, but there's no guarantee.