Caio Magalhaes’ 31-second knockout victory over Trevor Smith at UFC Fight Night 56 in Uberlandia, Brazil, will not be overturned.
Smith filed an appeal to Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) claiming that Magalhaes landed illegal punches to the back of the head moments before the finish at UFN 56 on Nov. 8. However, the commission has decided against him.
Here’s CABMMA’s response to Smith and his manager Will Hammond, forwarded to MMAFighting.com by Smith:
First, we need to stress that CABMMA follows the guidelines of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and, therefore, needed time to conduct the relevant research and analysis of precedents involving such agency to decide on how to proceed.
In this sense, CABMMA will not change a decision rendered at the end of any contest or exhibition unless (i) it determines that there was a collusion affecting the relevant result, (ii) the compilation of the scorecards of the judges discloses an error which shows that the decision was given to the wrong athlete, or (iii) as the result of an error interpreting a provision of our rules and regulations, the referee has rendered an incorrect decision.
The allegations contained in your e-mail do not fall in (i) or (ii), and moreover are not within the scope of (iii) above since the appeal is not based on a misinterpretation of the rules and regulations leading to the result of the bout, but rather on a judgment call of a trained and experienced referee based on Mr. Trevor Smith’s KO due to Mr. Caio Magalhães legal strikes, confirmed by Mr. Keith Patterson.
Consequently, there is no action CABMMA can take at this time and the result is maintained.
Magalhaes’ UFC record stands at 4-1. Smith, dropped to 2-3 under the UFC banner with the loss, isn’t happy with CABMMA’s decision.
“The rules for the sport are there to protect the athletes,” Smith told MMAFighting.com. “If a ref misses blatant fouls the commission should be able to review and reverse the decision. Things seem to be different with CABMMA.”
The unpleasant end of his trip to Brazil won’t stop Smith from wanting to fight in Brazil one more time.
“I would love to fight in Brazil again,” Smith said. “It would definitely be more of a street fight mentality. If the ref doesn’t catch it, you can get away with anything. Who doesn’t want to fight in the wild wild west of the MMA world?”