The bar for overturning a referee’s or judge’s decision in mixed martial arts is high. The ref cannot simply have made an honest mistake.
In most jurisdictions, the regulating commission will only overturn in three distinct cases. One is a math error, where for example the scores were totaled incorrectly. Another is an official being bribed, or otherwise influenced illegally to render the incorrect decision. And a third is an official not knowing the rules, for example giving an MMA fighter a 10-count and letting the fight continue.
Simply making a mistake does not meet the standard. If a ref stop a fight and later reconsiders, and says publicly that he or she should have let the fight continue, the initial decision stands.
Never the less, an unusual number of fighters petitions commissions to overturn a fight. This was the case at UFC 212 in Brazil; Erick Silva felt he could have continued when referee Eduardo Herdy stopped the fight vs. Yancy Medeiros.
OHHHHH what a left hook by @YMedeiros!! He drops Silva here in round 2! #UFC212 pic.twitter.com/KrCO6RDeab
— UFC (@ufc) June 4, 2017
For the record, Medeiros agreed that it was early. For the record, Herdy is a controversial referee. But none of that matters. The Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) denied Silva’s appeal, as detailed in a statement to Guilherme Cruz for MMA Fighting.
In this case, CABMMA will not change a decision rendered at the end of any contest or exhibition unless (i) it determines that there was a collusion affecting the relevant result, (ii) the compilation of the scorecards of the judges discloses an error which shows that the decision was given to the wrong athlete, or (iii) as the result of an error interpreting a provision of our rules and regulations, the referee has rendered an incorrect decision.
The allegations contained in his appeal do not fall in (i) or (ii), and moreover are not within the scope of (iii) above, since the appeal is not based on a misinterpretation of the rules and, but rather on a judgment call of a trained and experienced referee based on Erick Silva’s TKO due to Mr. Yancy Medeiro’s legal strikes, confirmed by Mr. Eduardo Herdy. Important to point out that it was the knock down taken by Erick and a few landed punches right after the knock down, with no proper defense, which led the referee to interrupt the bout.
If we start reviewing what is considered early stoppages due to KO/TKO, the next big thing will be reviewing scores from judges. It will be a never ending discussion.
And therefore there were no precedents found of overturned results due to KO/TKO in any bout or event sanctioned by commissions members of the ABC, which CABMMA is also a member of.
Silva is not 1-3 in his last four fights, while Medeiros improves to 2-0 since moving up to welterweight.
