Fabiano Maldonado knew he was a hand-selected opponent for Fedor Emelianeko. Fedor is widely considered one of the best mixed martial arts fighters of all time, while Maldonado built his reputation as an exciting fighter, but never a true title contender. The two fought in Emelianeko's home country of Russia a month ago, and the bout was overseen by the Russian MMA Union, an organization where Emelianko acts as president.

Fedor was the large betting favorite, closing at -1800 on Sportsbook. It wasn't supposed to be a competitive bout.

Instead, Maldonado dropped Fedor in the first round and nearly had the Russian unconscious. Under the Unified Rules of MMA, judges are supposed to score rounds 10-8 in cases of near knockouts. When a majority decision was announced in favor of Fedor, most were baffled.

Maldonado's management filed an appeal with the Russian MMA Union based on a conflict of interest as Fedor's position would allow him to also pick the ringside officials who handled the event. His appeal was denied by vice president Radmir Gabdullin, as he didn't file it within 40 minutes of the result, even though he was unaware of the rule.

Maldonado pushed his appeal to the World MMA Association (WMMAA), which counts Russia among its members. WMMAA suspended Gabdullin and assigned three officials to re-evaluate the fight. All three judges returned identical 28-28 cards. WMMAA has overturned the result to a unanimous draw.

Both Fight Nights Global and the Russian MMA Union have been informed of the decision, but the Russian MMA Union decided to not implement it. Gabdullin informed Tass.ru that the "result cannot be overturned" and "the WMMAA can express their views, but do not have the right to influence the judge's decision on the Russian professional promotion."

He continued, "This is a situation I regard as an unfounded attempt to take away a well-deserved victory from Russian legend Fedor Emelianenko."