Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman has filed an appeal in complaint of the officiating in his UFC 210 loss against Gegard Mousasi.
The bout was officially ruled a TKO after Mousasi landed a salvo of knees to the head of Weidman, who had considered himself a downed opponent because his hands were touching the canvas. Referee Dan Miragliotta immediately stopped the contest and called for a ringside doctor before being informed by cageside officials, including John McCarthy, that the slow motion replays show that Mousasi’s knees were in fact legal.
After an examination inside the octagon, and much to Weidman’s protestations, he was deemed unfit to continue and the fight was deemed a victory for Mousasi.
The controversy in this particular case is that it was thought that the New York State Athletic Commission didn’t allow instant replay to help determine the outcomes of combat sports contests, though a representative from the commission later supplied legislation to media members which allowed officials to consult with third parties in instances such as this.
Weidman, however, remains unhappy. Speaking on The MMA Hour, the 32-year-old told Ariel Helwani that an official appeal has been filed.
“We sent in the appeal,” he said. “It’s really on my managers, my trust is in them. They came up with something to send over, I looked it over, as did my wife. They sent it to New York and I think they might’ve got a reply.
“As for me and my hopes, to win an appeal in New York, especially it being so fresh, they are going to fight this thing to the death. At the end of the day, it doesn’t make a huge difference to me personally. I know what happened in there was chaos and not right and I was on the losing end of it. It sucks for a lot of reasons, but at the end of the day, I can’t control any of it and it’s over. I’ll just look to the future. Whether they make it a no contest or not, I’m not focused on it.”
What makes this particularly grating for Weidman is that he thinks he was on his way to winning the fight in his home state.
“I think I would’ve went on to dominate Mousasi and even finish him,” he noted. “Now, this is all my opinion and you can argue this back-and-forth and we will never know for that event. But, I do want a rematch because I felt I was dominating the fight.
“Even in the second round when he came forward and I was doing the backpedaling and he was punching. He didn’t land anything and I was very coherent and I wasn’t rocked. The rest of the round, I mounted him and took his back.
“I know Mousasi wasn’t happy with the result, judging by him pulling down his flag and telling his coaches to stop the celebration. I know his tune changed at the press conference and he was coached into the way he was talking at that point. But his instincts were right and as a fighter you don’t want to win that way. It was a debacle.”
The loss marked Weidman’s third in succession in the UFC. There is no immediate information as to when a reply to the appeal will be received.
