Rick Glenn considers controversy over UFC Boise win to be ‘pointless’

Close calls happen in MMA and Rick Glenn is ready to move on from his latest one.

“The Gladiator” went toe-to-toe with Dennis Bermudez for three rounds on the main card of UFC Boise last Saturday, eking out a split decision win that was somewhat marred by confusing scoring. The judges that scored the fight for Glenn gave him a 30-27 and a 29-28, while Bermudez earned a 29-28.

Afterwards, Bermudez, who is now on a four-fight skid, wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts on the verdict:

MMA Fighting asked Glenn for a response to the comment and while he sympathized with Bermudez, he’s not going to lose sleep over the outcome going his way.

“Everyone’s gonna have their thoughts, I guess. I won the fight, clearly — well, not in his eyes — but I won the fight literally by split decision so any other talk about it is really kind of pointless,” said Glenn. “It’s unfortunate, I always like to watch him as a fighter and I wish him well, it sucks that he’s lost four in a row now, so I kind of feel bad for him that way.

“I can relate a little bit. I’ve never lost four in a row but I can imagine that would really be a bummer. He’s got a family, so I wish him well, but I’m not going to get into all that bullcrap.”

Glenn has had the chance to re-watch the fight since and he’s pleased with his performance even if he found it curious that one judge would score all three rounds for him. From his perspective, the second round was the most troubling due to Bermudez successfully taking him down multiple times.

It did not appear that Bermudez was able to do much damage from top control and Glenn was able to avoid getting held down while also finding success striking with Bermudez in full guard. PerFightMetric, Glenn actually out-struck Bermudez 20-14 despite being outwrestled in round two.

“When we went to the ground, I cracked him with some pretty solid elbows,” said Glenn. “The average person doesn’t know the feeling of hitting someone in the head, but when you hit someone really hard in the head with an elbow, there’s that little concussed feeling that you can feel leaving their body as if you’re knocking on a watermelon or a coconut really hard with a hammer or your knuckle.

“It kind of echoes in there and when I cracked him a few times with some elbows, it was like knocking on a coconut and I hit him pretty hard.”

If Glenn regrets anything, it’s that he wasn’t able to get his first finish in the UFC. Prior to joining the promotion, he prided himself on rarely going to the scorecards, but all three of his Octagon victories have come by way of decision.

Still, the victory put him back over .500 and Glenn will always be satisfied with a win considering the chicanery he’s had to put up with on the regional scene. He experienced his own nightmarish incident with judging back in his home state of Iowa, going five rounds with Ryan Roberts in 2011 and seemingly winning a regional title via decision, only to be told later that the fight had been scored incorrectly.

“I had a draw, it was a five-round title fight and they announced me winning a unanimous decision in the cage and it was really odd too because I thought I clearly won every round,” said Glenn. “The guy was running, I tag him up with some punches, defend the takedown, busted his face open pretty good, and I was really fresh by the end of the fight because he wasn’t really engaging.

“And then afterwards the commissioners came up to us in the locker room and said they read it wrong, it was a draw.”

Glenn said he’d be open to giving Bermudez a rematch further down the road, but for now he’s looking ahead to the UFC’s upcoming trip to Milwaukee on Dec. 15. He used to train there (he’s since relocated to Sacramento, Calif., to work with Team Alpha Male) and along with his Iowa roots he has a considerable fanbase in the midwest.

He has a name in mind too: The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America 2 winner Enrique Barzola. “El Fuerte” might not be a household name, but the Peruvian featherweight has won four straight fights in the UFC and Glenn estimates that they’re right around the same area in the rankings.

“I think he’s mid-20s maybe now in the rankings, but he’s 5-1 in the UFC, doing well,” said Glenn. “I thought I was possibly going to get matched up with him back on that Chile card in May and it just didn’t work out, but he’s someone I’ve had my eye on for a little bit.”