Unless you live under a rock, you may have heard a thing or two about the result of Chris Weidman vs Gegard Mousasi. It was perhaps the biggest talking point coming out of UFC 210.
Even more than Daniel Cormier defeating Anthony Johnson again, and the subsequent out-of-nowhere Johnson retirement announcement. Nevertheless, let’s breakdown the result of Weidman vs Mousasi, and go over why things happened the way they did.
Weidman vs Mousasi Controversy
The gif above is the heavily debated sequence that ultimately ended the fight. The final official ruling was a TKO victory for Mousasi. However, Weidman has plans to challenge this and push for a No Contest.
The Knee
When Mousasi threw the two knees (seen in the above gif), referee Dan Miragliotta stopped the action. Miragliotta thought that the knees were illegal, as they were “knees to a grounded opponent.”
As you can see, Weidman very clearly was putting both hands on the mat to discourage Mousasi from throwing knee strikes. This is what many call “the game.” It’s frowned upon among fighters and officials, but it is a valid strategy. However, Mousasi lifted Weidman up when he threw his knee strikes which removed Weidman’s hands from the mat at the time the strike was delivered.
This means the knees were legal.
However …
Let’s go through what exactly transpired:
- Miragliotta stops the action thinking both of Weidman’s hands were on the mat (making the knees illegal)
- He separates the fighters and puts them in neutral corners
- Miragliotta then tells Weidman he has up to 5 minutes to get his bearings back before he has to choose whether to continue or not.
- During this time, the ref can choose to take a point away from the other fighter or give him a verbal warning -> he gives a verbal warning to Mousasi
- Because it was a head injury, the ringside physicians are called in to the Octagon to check Weidman’s motor skills and see if he is okay to continue.
- During this time, Miragliotta steps out of the cage and calls upon fellow referee John McCarthy (sitting ringside) for consul
- It’s completely allowed for referees to ask other ringside officials for their accounts of what happened (as explained by Herb Dean on The Luke Thomas Show)
- McCarthy explains to Miragliotta that the knees were legal
- Miragliotta returns to Weidman (who is still with the doctors doing brief motor skill tests and answering questions)
- Miragliotta tells Weidman has the rest of his 5 minutes to recover
- Technically, I don’t believe Miragliotta should have done this since the knees were legal (per John McCarthy). He probably should have tried to restart the fight then and there, and make good on his mistake.
- The doctors explain to Miragliotta that Weidman didn’t know what day it was, and is unfit to continue fighting
- Miragliotta calls the fight off. His main priority is to look out for the safety of the fighters. The fight was done since the doctors deemed Weidman unfit to continue
- Because the knees were legal, the final result is a TKO win for Mousasi. If the knees would have been illegal, it would be a No Contest.
Was Weidman milking his injury?
It’s natural to want to find somebody to blame for this blunder. Many blame Dan Miragliotta for getting the call wrong while others blame the physicians and also Chris Weidman. Many believe Weidman was acting more hurt than he really was in order to ensure his 5 minutes of recovery.
Obviously, nobody knows how hurt Weidman truly was other than him. If he was really that dazed from the knee strikes, then the call was correct. He was unfit to continue and was essentially TKO’d by the strikes. However, if he was faking it, then it was a horrible decision as it cost him the chance to continue fighting.
I don’t think Weidman realized that the doctors don’t wait for the 5 minutes to be up before making a decision. If they think a fighter is concussed and/or suffering impaired motor skills from a blow to the head, then they will stop the fight right then and there. The doctor’s word is gospel.
In my opinion …
there really wasn’t any wrong doing. At the end of the day, Mousasi was ready to fight while Weidman wasn’t. I don’t even think you can blame Dan Miragliotta for not getting the call right. Human error is expect. Plus, it was a pretty close call.
Almost everyone agrees that the knees were clean and if Weidman was really that badly hurt then a TKO win for Mousasi is fair. If he wasn’t that badly hurt, then he was trying to get an extra 5 minutes of recovery (or a No Contest) which means he’s not willing to fight anyway.
Either way, Weidman vs Mousasi resulted in a big win for Mousasi, who inches closer and closer to the title.
