The CSAC might've looked into a possible conflict of interest if they knew what they were doing and the judge have recused himself. Wade Vierra, who scored the bout for Melendez, is a Cesar Gracie brown belt who runs an affiliate school in the bay area. His website features videos of Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields, and Nick Diaz on the landing page. That's him to Cesar's right in this photo. Imagine if one of the judges for the GSP/Diaz fight was affiliated with Tristar? Scrap Pack would've flipped the fuck out (oh wait they did anyway).
I realize that it's not possible to have qualified judges who aren't affiliated with any fighters or camps but I don't think it's impossible to avoid possible conflicts of interest.
http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/04/csac-head-defends-judges-selection-at-ufc-on-fox-7 Head of the CSAC says they didn't have the judge score the Diaz/Thompson fight because of a possible conflict but allowed him to judge the Melendez fight since his connection to him is more stretched. Shouldn't have been judging either fight but I sympathize with his argument that getting qualified judges is paramount even if it poses problems. Still, not hard to hire six judges for an event and make sure the right ones are doing each fight.
