Karine Silva managed to bounce back with a controversial win over Dione Barbosa at UFC 319, avenging her May 2019 loss to the London 2012 Olympian. Despite coming in as the underdog, ‘The Witch’ Barbosa looked strong in the opening round, using her striking to keep Silva at a distance and nearly finishing the fight with a deep armbar attempt.

Barbosa carried that momentum into the following rounds, while Silva only began showing flashes of offense as the fight wore on. By the end, the crowd inside the United Center in Chicago seemed to believe Barbosa had done enough to earn the nod. Instead, Silva’s hand was raised—leaving fans stunned, along with UFC commentator Joe Rogan.

JackMac of Spinnin Backfist on X captured the moment with a clip, stating, “Rogan’s face after that Karine Silva decision was unbelievable. The man was disgusted.” In the video, Rogan’s reaction is highlighted with pauses, showing his mouth wide open in shock as Barbosa briefly approaches him. “I mean, look at him, mouth wide open. Barbosa goes over to him briefly.”

Interestingly, JackMac felt the judging wasn’t necessarily wrong, adding, “I had it for Silva. I didn’t think Barbosa did enough in round two, round three to get it on any of the scorecards. I mean, I was expecting a split, but Rogan was in disgust.” Regardless, after Bruce Buffer’s announcement, Daniel Cormier seemed confused, and Rogan branded it a “bad decision.”

Still, the majority of fans online echoed the crowd at the venue—agreeing more with Rogan’s visible disbelief than with the judges’ scorecards.

Fans go ballistic over Karine Silva vs. Dione Barbosa judging

During the fight, Silva was on the outside early, with her opponent holding the center. And eventually, the 33-year-old managed to get Barbosa’s back off the fence as she fired kicks and targeted the body. In the back half of a competitive first round, Silva got her hands going. However, soon enough, Barbosa hunted for a near choke, but Silva defended that and switched to an arm-bar, but ran out of time.

The second round saw them get to the ground much faster and, as expected, Silva got in control. However, later in the round, it was Barbosa getting Silva down, landing ground n’ pound, and finishing the frame strong. And as the grappling exchanges continued in the third round, Silva regained her lost control in the second round as she managed a guillotine attempt near the midway mark and a wild scramble.

By now, Barbosa appeared a bit tired, and Silva took full advantage of the situation. But it was not like Barbosa went down without giving her one last loss. Barbosa reversed the momentum as Silva found herself on the back with about 90 seconds to go. However, Silva punched off her back, and they went to the final horn that way.

However, the fans were not in agreement with the judges’ decision. What they perceived as a robbery, people quickly shared their pointed opinions on the matter. One user wrote, “He couldn’t hide it to save his life lol.” Joe Rogan may have thought Barbosa had this one in the bag. 

Another user didn’t seem happy about the judging. He claimed, “Horrible Judging in that fight!!! Totally screwed it up backwards.” However, there would be arguments on both sides.

Someone else was left amused by Rogan’s reaction to the result. The user wrote, “Hahaha. Rogan’s like WTF 😂😂😂😂.” It just showed how well Barbosa performed, even though she couldn’t win the fight.

The next user took his frustration to the extreme. The user commented, “Garbage judges, man, I lost money lol.” Well, betting comes with such risks. 

Meanwhile, this user had an interesting theory. The user wrote, “At the time of the scorecards being read, Silva looked like she thought she lost. Her corner even told her she was down 2-0.” However, that’s not proof of any wrongdoing on the judge’s part. 

It appears emotions are running high among the fans, as Dione Barbosa will have to head home with a loss. However, do you agree with Karine Silva’s win? Do you think the judges screwed things up?