So there’s a reason certain moves have been deemed illegal in the MMA handbook. It’s easy to do some major damage in a fight by just simply tweaking your ankle or shifted the wrong way and pulling something. And yes, the punches, kicks, knees, and elbows certainly help to do some major damage as well, but all of those blows require a certain level of finesse. Then there are soccer kicks and stomps.
So there’s a reason certain moves have been deemed illegal in the MMA handbook. It’s easy to do some major damage in a fight by just simply tweaking your ankle or shifted the wrong way and pulling something. And yes, the punches, kicks, knees, and elbows certainly help to do some major damage as well, but all of those blows require a certain level of finesse. Then there are soccer kicks and stomps. They look awesome in terms of spectacle, but you have to wonder when, if ever, is it cool to use those attacks in a professional MMA match.
Road FC featured a bout that ended due to one of those illegal techniques. Here’s a reminder of why stomps are so frowned upon.
(The Fight Night 27 post-fight press conference via the UFC’s Youtube channel.)
We’ll admit to skipping over the very first fight on yesterday’s Fight Night 27: Condit vs. Kampmann card — a lightweight scrap between Abel “Killa” Trujillo and Roger “Fuck it, Dude, Let’s Go” Bowling — in our aftermath piece this morning, but not because we missed the fight and not because we planned on using it as a prime example for another article about potential rule changes in MMA. In my eyes (and therefore all of CP’s because BG is out of town. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!), there was simply no controversy to be had.
Trujillo threw two knees. The first was legal; to the chest. The second was not; it hit Bowling square in the jaw. In fact, the second was about as blatantly illegal a strike as you could ask for. When Bowling was deemed unable to continue, we assumed he would be awarded the victory via DQ, as was the case when Luiz Cane illegally kneed James Irvin’s eyeball through the back of his skull at UFC 79. When the ref informed Trujillo that the fight would be declared a NC because the knee wasn’t “blatant,” we scratched our heads a little, but knew that intention behind a foul is determined by the referee alone.
So what should have been a DQ win for Roger Bowling was now a NC. Fine. But to say that Trujillo should have not only won the fight but will be receiving a win bonus as well? Surely you’d have to be f*cking insane to utter such insanity.
Those shots were not illegal. The first one hit him in the chest, and the second hit him in the shoulder. That kid should’ve won that fight, and I’m going to pay him his win bonus.
Yup, that’s Dana White at the Fight Night 27 post-fight press conference (approximately 20 minutes into the above video), clearly high as f*ck. But here’s the thing: Dana is right.
Join us after the jump to see why.
(The Fight Night 27 post-fight press conference via the UFC’s Youtube channel.)
We’ll admit to skipping over the very first fight on yesterday’s Fight Night 27: Condit vs. Kampmann card — a lightweight scrap between Abel “Killa” Trujillo and Roger “Fuck it, Dude, Let’s Go” Bowling — in our aftermath piece this morning, but not because we missed the fight and not because we planned on using it as a prime example for another article about potential rule changes in MMA. In my eyes (and therefore all of CP’s because BG is out of town. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!), there was simply no controversy to be had.
Trujillo threw two knees. The first was legal; to the chest. The second was not; it hit Bowling square in the jaw. In fact, the second was about as blatantly illegal a strike as you could ask for. When Bowling was deemed unable to continue, we assumed he would be awarded the victory via DQ, as was the case when Luiz Cane illegally kneed James Irvin’s eyeball through the back of his skull at UFC 79. When the ref informed Trujillo that the fight would be declared a NC because the knee wasn’t “blatant,” we scratched our heads a little but knew that intention behind a foul is determined by the referee alone.
So what should have been a DQ win for Roger Bowling was now a NC. Fine. But to say that Trujillo should have not only won the fight but will be receiving a win bonus as well? Surely you’d have to be f*cking insane to utter such insanity.
Those shots were not illegal. The first one hit him in the chest, and the second hit him in the shoulder. That kid should’ve won that fight, and I’m going to pay him his win bonus.
Yup, that’s Dana White at the Fight Night 27 post-fight press conference (approximately 20 minutes into the above video), clearly high as f*ck. But here’s the thing: Dana is right.
Join us after the jump to see why.
As I said, when I first caught the fight, I would have told you within a shadow of a doubt that Trujillo’s second knee was illegal. I would have said the same after watching the replay and I was fully prepared to end this article with a facepalm photo to shame DW for making such an erroneous statement. Let’s watch said replay in gif form, shall we?
I know. STILL TOTALLY ILLEGAL, right?
Now let’s watch a slowed down version of the gif, compliments of UGer epwar:
As we can now see, Trujillo’s second knee also hits Bowling in the chest, but gradually slides up and catches him in the face on its way out. So at worst, Trujillo hit Bowling with an unintentional knee to the face that was meant for (as the ref determined) and did in fact land on Bowling’s chest. Problem is, neither of Bowling’s knees were on the ground at the moment of Trujillo’s second strike, let alone when it reached his face:
This screengrab was published in the comments section of an MMAFighting article earlier today. In it, you can CLEARLY see that both of Bowling’s knees are hovering above the canvas. Therefore, it didn’t matter where Trujillo’s shot landed, because Bowling was technically not a downed opponent.
I should inform you that I have no dog in this fight. This article, believe it or not, was originally titled “Dana White Declares Knees to the Head of a Downed Opponent Legal, Gives Abel Trujillo His Bonus Money.” I am also a staunch believer that all knees should be legal in MMA, downed opponent or otherwise. You know this. But upon looking at the evidence and taking the current rules into context, it’s hard not to agree with The Baldfather’s assessment that Trujillo got screwed here.
In any case, the ruling in this fight, which was made by referee Rob Hinds, only enforces the belief that instant replay is being shamefully underutilized in MMA. We know we’ve published articles stating the contrary before, but the basis of their arguments was that instant replay would create more questions than it would solve. Yet here we have the President of the UFC not only questioning a call that (to our knowledge) was not based on any replay, but essentially reversing it. Tell me again how instant replay would somehow add to the confusion of this scenario; I’m all ears.
Judging by the comments section on our TUF 17 Finale Aftermath, the majority of you felt that Travis Browne’s victory over Gabriel Gonzaga should have an asterisk next to it. Early in the fight, Gonzaga pressed Browne against the cage looking for a takedown. Browne unleashed a series of elbows to Gonzaga’s head that knocked him out just one minute and eleven seconds into the first round and earned Browne the Knockout of the Night bonus. However, as many fans have pointed out, it appeared that the elbows that ended the fight hit Gabriel Gonzaga directly in the back of the head.
Shortly after the fight, Gabriel Gonzaga’s manager, Marco Alvan, took to his Facebook page to inform fans that he would be appealing the outcome. Via Facebook:
Guys Gabriel Gonzaga is ok, thanks for the messages.
I need to review it to count how many illegal elbows but Its a fact that it was illegal.
I contacted Keith Kizer head of Nevada Athletic Comission and he told me to file a complaint and he would review it.
I true believe it was illegal. I never complaint about a losses who knows me know that I handle it good but illegal we can not accept.
In a follow-up post, Alvan also expressed his interest in setting up a rematch against Travis Browne:
Judging by the comments section on our TUF 17 Finale Aftermath, the majority of you felt that Travis Browne’s victory over Gabriel Gonzaga should have an asterisk next to it. Early in the fight, Gonzaga pressed Browne against the cage looking for a takedown. Browne unleashed a series of elbows to Gonzaga’s head that knocked him out just one minute and eleven seconds into the first round and earned Browne the Knockout of the Night bonus. However, as many fans have pointed out, it appeared that the elbows that ended the fight hit Gabriel Gonzaga directly in the back of the head.
Shortly after the fight, Gabriel Gonzaga’s manager, Marco Alvan, took to his Facebook page to inform fans that he would be appealing the outcome. Via Facebook:
Guys Gabriel Gonzaga is ok, thanks for the messages.
I need to review it to count how many illegal elbows but Its a fact that it was illegal.
I contacted Keith Kizer head of Nevada Athletic Comission and he told me to file a complaint and he would review it.
I true believe it was illegal. I never complaint about a losses who knows me know that I handle it good but illegal we can not accept.
In a follow-up post, Alvan also expressed his interest in setting up a rematch against Travis Browne:
This videois clear about the elbow [Author Note: This appears to be a video of the fourth and fifth elbows landed].
I very hope the commission look it carefully and make a correct decision about it. We respect Travis and his camp but it was a sad night. We hope this result can be fixed and get a new fight between them.
I don’t know who post it but thanks to clarify for all of us!
If you watch the ending again, you’ll see that the first two elbows landed cleanly to the side of Gonzaga’s head. The elbow that put Gonzaga out was possibly illegal, and the last three elbows clearly hit the back of the head. However, since Gonzaga was already out when they landed, they didn’t potentially affect the outcome of the fight. The NSAC’s ruling on the third elbow will more than likely decide the outcome of this case.
In the meantime, what do you think happened? Should Gonzaga get a rematch against Browne, or was he already out by the time he was hit in the back of the head?
This is Pedro Nobre, the TUF: Brazil alum who made his UFC debut last weekend at UFC on FX 7 against fellow Brazilian Iuri Alcantara. As you can tell from the neck brace he is sporting in the above photo, his debut did not go well. Alcantara landed a few supposedly illegal shots to the back of Nobre’s dome, and likely in an effort to make up for his poor performance during the Alessio Sakara/Patrick Cote debacle at UFC 154, referee Dan Miragliotta waved the bout off and declared it a no contest when Nobre was unable to continue.
The only problem was that 90% of the shots Alcantara landed, if not all of them, were neither illegal nor all that devastating (at least from our perspective), which prompted Dana White to post the following on Twitter:
In fact, White became so enraged by Nobre’s Oscar-worthy performance that he recently all but completely closed the door on Nobre’s future UFC aspirations.
After the jump: White’s scathing comments, along with a gif of the stoppage.
This is Pedro Nobre, the TUF: Brazil alum who made his UFC debut last weekend at UFC on FX 7 against fellow Brazilian Iuri Alcantara. As you can tell from the neck brace he is sporting in the above photo, his debut did not go well. Alcantara landed a few supposedly illegal shots to the back of Nobre’s dome, and likely in an effort to make up for his poor performance during the Alessio Sakara/Patrick Cote debacle at UFC 154, referee Dan Miragliotta waved the bout off and declared it a no contest when Nobre was unable to continue.
The only problem was that 90% of the shots Alcantara landed, if not all of them, were neither illegal nor all that devastating (at least from our perspective), which prompted Dana White to post the following on Twitter:
In fact, White became so enraged by Nobre’s Oscar-worthy performance that he recently all but completely closed the door on Nobre’s future UFC aspirations.
When White was pressed on the Nobre’s future in the UFC at the UFC 158 press conference yesterday, not only did he state that Alcantara had received a win bonus despite the no contest ruling, but that he “doubted” Nobre would be invited back to the octagon anytime soon:
I think he’s a fantastic actor. Did you hear he’s walking around Brazil with a neck brace on right now?
And as it turns out, Nobre did not suffer any long term injuries as a result of the fight, and recently told MMAJunkie that he was eager to get back in the octagon to rematch Alcantara:
We are both fighters with similar characteristics, who fight always moving forward. I wish to return to the octagon soon. In case the UFC asks for a [rematch], to remove any doubt, we would do everything to make it up to the audience.
Unfortunately for Nobre, it doesn’t look like he will be getting that chance. Check out a GIF of the stoppage right here, courtesy of our friends at Fightlinker. Whether you feel Nobre was legitimately unable to continue or not is ultimately a moot point; the real question to ask yourself is whether or not the shots that were responsible for ending the fight were illegal or not. And unless you’re Mr. Magoo, you’re probably going to say they weren’t.
[UPDATED]
According to multiple sources, Nobre has indeed been released from the promotion, along with Ken Stone (2-2 UFC, victim of two of themost brutal knockout losses of all time during his WEC and UFC runs), Byron Bloodworth (0-2 UFC) and Josh Janousek, who was set to make his promotional debut on short notice against Michael Kuiper at UFC on Fox 6, but recently pulled out with a last-minute injury.
Nobre recently responded to the allegations that he was faking an injury via Sherdog.com:
At no time during the fight did I complain about blows to the neck because I was almost knocked out there and did not know where the blows were coming. And nobody asked me also if I could continue, they just asked what hurt. Then I thought I had lost [the fight]. Only at the hospital did they tell me that it had been ruled a no contest. It was a bad thing to have taken the victory from Yuri, but when I reviewed the fight, I saw that the blows really came on the neck. It is illegal, so the no contest was fair. I felt the blows when I turned back. I was almost knocked out already. If he did not land those blows to the neck, he would have achieved a fair victory. As for the crowd, I did not understand why they called me quitter because, as I said, in my mind I was leaving to the hospital after losing by TKO. I saw the repercussions on the Internet, and I was sad. Everyone who has been following my career knows me. Everyone knows the character I have, but [some are saying] that I gave up the fight. Gee, brother, I was knocked out. The referee stopped it; the fight was over. I did not ask to stop, and they did not ask if I wanted to continue.
