Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has raised eyebrows over the scoring in Saturday's UFC 328 main event, suggesting the judges may have had an ulterior motive when they awarded Sean Strickland a split-decision victory over Khamzat Chimaev.

In a fight that had fans on the edge of their seats at Newark's Prudential Center, Chimaev (15-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) lost his middleweight title to Strickland (31-7 MMA, 18-7 UFC) in a bout that came down to the wire. All three judges had the fight tied at two rounds apiece heading into the final frame, making Round 5 the deciding factor.

Rockhold, who was part of Chimaev's training camp and has been openly critical of Strickland in the past, didn't mince words when breaking down the controversial scorecards on the JAXXON Podcast. He believes two judges got it wrong by giving the final round to Strickland.

"Maybe that's why he won, because of the +400 or 500 odds," Rockhold said. "I think Khamzat won. Khamzat won the fourth and fifth round. He controlled the pace of how that fight finished, and that's what champions do, and that's who deserves the championship."

Strickland entered the octagon as a significant underdog, and Rockhold theorizes that the betting odds may have influenced the outcome. He broke down the action round by round, offering a fighter's perspective on what he saw.

"A jab is meant to change the course of what direction the fight is going," Rockhold explained. "Every jab he (Strickland) had was moving backwards. You've got to do damage and step him back. The only round that was clear for Sean is Round 2. Round 3 was close, could have gone either way. Round 4 was Khamzat all the way. He really pushed the pace; he hit him with some bigger shots."

Rockhold noted that while Strickland landed clean jabs, they were often defensive strikes rather than fight-changing blows. "They were setups, and they were defensive. Then the fifth round, he (Chimaev) pushed him on the back foot, too. He could have won (Rounds) 1, 3, 4, and 5. The only clear round for Sean was Round 2. Khamzat landed the bigger shots. It doesn't make sense."

The former champion didn't hold back his suspicion about the judges' decision-making. "The only thing that makes sense is that he was a +500 underdog. There's a little bit of sketchy things sometimes in who they want to win. Maybe they just wanted Sean to win because he's Sean. It could have been swayed."

For fight fans and sports bettors alike, this controversial decision adds another chapter to the ongoing debate about judging consistency in mixed martial arts.