Dana White awards Ross Pearson $30,000 win bonus following controversial judges decision at UFC Fight Night 42

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White said he was going to treat Ross Pearson like a winner despite "losing" a split decision to Diego Sanchez at UFC Fight Night 42 last weekend (Sat., June 7, 2014) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

And he wasted no time proving it.

Speaking to UFC's "The Download," White revealed that Pearson would indeed receive his $30,000 win bonus he would have earned had the judges actually been watching the fight Pearson gotten the nod over "Nightmare" in their Lightweight co-main event.

That's because White -- and many others -- felt Pearson was robbed by the judges, two of whom felt Sanchez had done enough to win the match (see FightMetric report here) even though "Real Deal" dominated a majority of the three-round action (watch full fight video highlights here).

White weighed in:

"Diego lost that fight. The judge who judged that fight should never be judging fights again. He never should be judging fights of this caliber, he needs to go back down into the amateurs and really learn how to judge a fight. First of all, you gave every round to Diego, who got dropped in the second round. It was a knockdown, how does Diego win that round? It's not possible. I don't know how you can vote against him, but it goes to show that you're never safe. That's as bad as it gets."

Venting his frustration on the questionable call, Pearson said he felt like someone had robbed him of a paycheck. Luckily for him, White and Co. have done everything in their power to right the wrong. That's because White also recently revealed that Pearson would also get a "next level fight" in his next Octagon outing.

You're up, New Mexico Athletic Commission (NMAC).