It will be interesting to see how this one unfolds.
UFC heavyweight Roy Nelson, after winning his bout with Antonio Silva on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 95, grew frustrated with referee “Big” John McCarthy for what Nelson believed was a late stoppage following his right-hand shot on Silva.
One of the ways he chose to express that frustration was to push-kick McCarthy in the backside from behind after the fight concluded.
Contact with referees is strictly verboten in more or less every sport, MMA included. In fact, in 2014 a ref shove earned lightweight Jason High his UFC release.
Nelson explained afterward that he hadn’t wanted to hurt Silva—the two are friends away from the cage—any more than was necessary.
“It was a push,” Nelson said of the move at the post-fight press conference (h/t Shaun Al-Shatti of MMA Fighting). “It was more of like, ‘dude, come on.’ Then we had a conversation in the cage. I was like, ‘Dude, he was knocked out.’ And [McCarthy] was like, ‘No, he wasn’t.’ And I’m like, dude, I know what a knockout is. I knock people out. That’s what I do for a living.”
A little farther removed from the heat of battle, Nelson apologized for his actions, but added that he didn’t regret making the move.
“I apologize to Big John, but I wouldn’t take it back,” Nelson said at the presser. “It just hurt me, that I’ve got to keep on hitting a guy that doesn’t need to be hit.”
According to the MMA Fighting report, UFC officials indicated they would not take any disciplinary action against Nelson. It is uncertain what, if any, action will be taken by the Brazilian athletic commission that sanctioned the event, which took place in the federal capital of Brasilia.
Back in 2014, UFC president Dana White said of the High situation (via Sophia Helwani) that “if you touch the referee, [you are] done. …You don’t put your hands on the referee. Ever.”
Although the touch in question following the Nelson fight was a foot, not a hand, it’s probably reasonable to presume White was speaking figuratively, and that contacting a referee with a foot is similar to touching a referee with a hand.
Only, apparently, it isn’t.
There was no immediate explanation from the UFC on why it viewed the Nelson incident differently from the High incident.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com