UFC 292 video: Gregory Rodrigues appears to knock out Denis Tiuliulin with illegal elbow

Gregory Rodrigues absolutely destroyed Denis Tiuliulin with elbows from mount at UFC 292.

The problem was, the shot that appeared to knock out Tiuliulin was illegal.

Referee Brian Minor immediately stepped in to stop the contest at the 1:43 mark of the opening frame, seeing Tiuliulin was unconscious with the second elbow that slammed into his cranium in the preliminary card bout at TD Garden in Boston. The referee appeared to miss, however, the placement of the elbow, which was on the back of Tiuliulin’s head just below the crown.

According to the Unified Rules of MMA, it is illegal to strike in an area that starts at the crown of the head and runs to the nape of the neck with a one-inch variance on either side.

Here is the finish.

Subsequent replays showed more clearly the placement of the elbow, which put Rodrigues back in the win column after a knockout loss to Brunno Ferreira at UFC 283. The loss was Tiuliulin’s second in a row after a first-round submission loss to Jun Yong Park.