Serhiy Sidey: ‘I thought I lost’ UFC Edmonton bout to Garrett Armfield

Serhiy Sidey was happy to walk away from UFC Edmonton with a victory, although he didn’t think he was going to when the final horn sounded.

Sidey faced Garrett Armfield in a preliminary bantamweight bout on Saturday’s Fight Night card at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada. After three rounds, Sidey was awarded the split decision win, which much of the MMA community didn’t agree with.

“That was a very close fight,” Sidey said in his post-fight scrum. “First two rounds, very close, I might’ve edged those out. Lost that third round. When the judges were scoring the scorecards, personally, I thought I lost. I’ll be honest.

“I’ve got to re-watch that fight. I know I hurt him bad in the first two rounds, had some very close submissions, I got a split decision win today.”

Armfield, as expected, wasn’t thrilled with the two judges that scored it for Sidey, going as far to joke in a since-deleted tweet that someone should “investigate these judges” and tagging UFC CEO Dana White and Donald Trump. He later made it clear that he wasn’t serious.

Despite the controversy, Sidey officially has a UFC victory on his résumé. After earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series with a controversial knockout win against Ramon Taveras, the UFC rebooked the pairing at UFC 297, and Taveras earned a split decision victory.

For Sidey, he’ll chalk off Saturday’s fight with Armfield as a win and a lot of valuable lessons learned sharing the cage with someone he respects.

“Garrett came out and that was the hardest fight I’ve ever had, I think,” Sidey said. “He mixed up his wrestling really well and good boxing, the strongest 135er I’ve ever fought, for sure. That dude had some crazy strength.

“A lot of things I can learn from this fight. I want to come back stronger.”