Coach: Crosby was ‘combative’ during judges meeting

Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick shares his experience with controversial UFC 282 judge Doug Crosby.

MMA judge Doug Crosby is currently facing a review and a formal complaint, stemming from his officiating of two events over the weekend.

The official in question scored the co-main event bout of UFC 282 in favor of Paddy Pimblett with a 29-28 tally. But what put him in hot water was his 50-45 tally in favor of Danny Sabatello at Bellator 289. The two other judges with him that night, Bryan Miner and Eric Colon, both gave Raufeon Stots a 48-47 tally, resulting in a split decision verdict in the latter’s favor.

During Wednesday’s Nevada Athletic Commission meeting, Crosby was accused of demonstrating “criminal incompetence” and the manner in which he officiated was placed in question. And apparently, Crosby has a history of contentious behavior, at least according to Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick.

Nicksick did an interview with journalist RJ Clifford and UFC strawweight Angela Hill recently for Sirius XM, where shared his experience dealing with Crosby during a judges’ meeting some months back.

“We actually had a Zoom meeting a few months back,” Nicksick said (quotes via MMA Mania). “That was [something] the Nevada State Athletic Commission put together; a Zoom meeting with a bunch of judges and a handful of MMA coaches.

“The job with that was for us to kind of sit down and mend some fences and ask some questions and things like that. I’ll be transparent with you guys, the No. 1 outlier in that Zoom meeting was Doug Crosby.

“Like, he didn’t want to be there, he felt combative in the meeting, he thought ... I don’t know. I guess he was above this meeting for us. That’s the way I felt and not only myself, but the other coaches that were involved and it was pretty evident.”

Nicksick then claimed that Crosby wanted to come down to Xtreme Couture to discuss “his version of judging.”

“He wanted to come to the gym after and explain his version of judging. Well, you can’t. You’re in a Zoom meeting with all your superiors, why do you need to come on your own to come to talk to us about what you see and what you feel is right in judging? You have that platform right then and there.

“I let him in the gym, but I just left. If you want to talk to whoever you want to talk to, but I’m not gonna sign off on that and I just took off. In my mind, I was like maybe he’s mad at me, I don’t know.”

Crosby is also under review by the Mohegan Sun Athletic Commission because of his questionable scoring of Bellator 289.