On the latest edition of The MMA Hour, Chris Weidman revealed that he lost the appeal of his controversial loss to Gegard Mousasi at UFC 210.
At the time of the fight, it was believed that the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) could not use instant replays for the events that they oversee. Days after the April event, NYSAC confirmed in a statement to MMAFighting.com that instant replays are “officially allowed” in the state of New York.
The referee for the bout, Dan Miragliotta, called a stop to the action midway through the second round after Gegard Mousasi delivered two knees to Weidman’s head as he was trying to make himself a grounded opponent with his two hands on the canvas.
Miragliotta initially called a stop to the action to give Weidman time to recover as he thought the knees were illegal. After consulting with veteran referee John McCarthy cage-side, and after McCarthy had seen a replay of the incident, he correctly determined the knees to be legal. After being assessed by in-cage doctors, Weidman was not deemed fit to continue. As the knees were deemed legal, a TKO victory was awarded to Mousasi.
Weidman claimed that he did not expect to win the appeal.
“I just got it back in the mail yesterday,” said Weidman on the latest edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.
“I did not win the appeal. I don’t think it was anything we didn’t expect. I didn’t even read it. My wife was reading it.”
According to the NYSAC’s correspondence with Weidman, replays can be used in cases where an injury has occurred in a bout.
“I guess when there’s something that happens inside of the Octagon and it has to do with an injury the commission is allowed to look at the replay. I guess, something like that is what it is about.
“The rules that were explained to us are that there was no replay. If something happens where there is an injury they are allowed to look at it. That’s pretty much what I heard from my wife.”
Weidman insisted that he did not hedge his bets on winning the appeal and stated that he would have been surprised if NYSAC went back on its initial determination.
“Either way, I didn’t put my eggs in that basket,” he said. “I would’ve been kind of surprised (if they had reversed the decision). For them to admit they were wrong, I would’ve been kind of surprised.”
Weidman’s next outing takes place under the jurisdiction of the NYSAC when he takes on Kelvin Gastelum at Nassau Coliseum on July 22. Despite taking the commission to task with his appeal, the former champion does not expect to be treated any differently in his dealings with the NYSAC.
“If they decide to make it awkward (they can), but I’m not going to let them have any power over me or make me feel awkward.
“I’m going to be fighting in my home state with all of my fans in front of my fans, my friends and my family. I’m going to be very comfortable. If they get weird about things, that’s on them. I won’t let that affect me.”
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