Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman poked his way back into the win column last weekend in Atlantic City, jabbing and stabbing Brazilian blindman Bruno Silva with a series of flying fingers. Referee Gary Copeland brought a halt to the foul-friendly action in the third and final frame and “All American” was later awarded a technical decision victory.
So why wasn’t the bout ruled a no contest, like this cage-clearing calamity?
“When Gary Copeland has Chris Weidman, who is putting his fingers out like it’s a pitchfork — you need to address that as the official,” McCarthy told co-host Josh Thomson on their “Weighing In” podcast (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “I don’t care that you’re in New Jersey where Chris Weidman is a hero. I’m being honest: I wanted Chris Weidman to win this fight. … But I can’t have Chris Weidman getting preferential treatment as far as you’re the one creating this problem. You need to address the problem and make sure the individual who is creating the problem doesn’t do it anymore. Well, he did do it more.”
“I don’t think Gary saw the eye pokes (just before the finish), so that was understandable,” McCarthy continued. “He makes the call of stopping the fight. Once he makes the call of stopping the fight and they look at the tape, you can see that he did get poked in the eye. … They need to have the judges score whatever part of the third round they’ve seen. Who won that round? You already have two rounds that have been judged. This need(ed) to go to a technical decision. It’s not a unanimous decision victory. It’s a technical decision victory for Chris Weidman.”
Weidman suggests Silva may have been “looking for a way out” by executing a Ric Flair flop every time he “felt something touching his eyeball.” The bout was originally ruled a technical knockout victory for Weidman but later changed to a technical decision.
“Chris had won the first two rounds,” McCarthy said. “And if you’re gonna say the third round, I think Chris was winning that one for the most part, too. So I knew Chris was gonna win the fight, but that way it’s not on the fact that a foul occurred and the referee made a decision to stop it without seeing the foul. Now (the commission is) saying, ‘Okay, we see the foul. This is what we do.’ Based upon the fact that the fight had entered the third round, you could go to a technical decision. If the same thing had happened in the second round, it would’ve ended up being a no contest. You would not have had a technical decision, because they can only go to that technical decision if the fight enters the third round.”
McCarthy expects Silva to be unsuccessful in his post-fight appeal.
“What they’re doing is, by going to that technical decision, it’s the right thing to do. I’m just gonna tell you straight out,” McCarthy said. “Because giving Chris Weidman a victory off of TKO, then you’re saying that you’re not addressing the fact that there was a foul. They are addressing that fact. Gary Copeland could’ve decided to have taken points for the fouls. He didn’t do that. That’s his decision. … So the commission actually did the right thing. But, yes, by doing that right thing, they’re taking the ability of Bruno Silva to protest the stopping of the fight as a TKO and making it a no contest later on. They’re taking that away by doing the right thing.”
For more UFC Atlantic City news and post-fight results click here and here.