Chris Weidman to appeal loss

The UFC 210 co-main events ended controversially, with Chris Weidman being told by referee Dan Miragliotta that he had five minutes to recover from an illegal knee. Weidman had two hands on the ground, meaning he could not be kneed in the head. However, Gegard Mousasi yanked Weidman up until one hand left the ground, and then kneed his opponent, something the referee missed.

Weidman thought he had received an illegal knee, and believed if he could not continue, he would win. If the ref had determined it was an accidental knee, then the fight would have been a No Contest; if the knee was thrown knowing Weidman was down, then Weidman would have won. Next, the fight doctor determined that Weidman could not continue. In the meantime, John McCarthy had seen the replay and told Miragliotta it was legal. Mousasi was ultimately declared the winner. However, New York does not allow referees to use instant replay to make determinations, so how the final decision was made remains something of a mystery.

Weidman’s manager Audie Attar said that an appeal would be filed as soon as possible. Miragliotta did not comment, citing the appeal.

The whole time he was telling me it was an illegal knee, you have five minutes, take your time, said Weidman at the post-fight press conference, as transcribed by Ryan Gerbosi for NewsDay. I thought I was going to win because of an illegal knee.

I’ve been through way worse than that. If it was a legal knee, I would’ve loved to just keep fighting. It shouldn’t have been stopped.

If it went down like that and it was stopped right away and you go off the ref’s decision, I win the fight by an illegal knee, if there was no such thing as a five-minute period to collect yourself.”

I don’t know what’s going on with the New York commission. My dream was always to fight in New York, but all my coaches, everybody around me is like, ‘you’re not fighting in New York anymore, this is crap.’”

Mousasi too thought there was some crap going on too.

I have a lot of respect for Weidman, I don’t want to badmouth him, but if you want to play smart and take advantage of the rules, that’s not my fault, said Mousasi. You’re fighting, don’t try to take advantage of the rules, I’m fighting and at the end of the day it was legal.

Weidman wants a rematch, but UFC president Dana White did not seem overly enthusiastic when asked.

If you ask yourself, could Weidman have come back from that? said White. It looked like he was in a real bad position right there and that was the way the fight was going to go. So who knows? I don’t know.

Audio emerged of the Weidman’s corner Ray Longo and Matt Serra that perhaps undercutting the fighter’s stance. Weidman was unable to name the date, and apparently told the doctor he thought it was February.

If this entire episode illustrates anything, it is not that Miragliotta is a poor ref, he is, in fact, excellent and every ref makes mistakes. The biggest lesson is that instant replay is a useful tool in mixed martial arts.