An already murky 48 hours for the UFC in the state of New York just got wilder.
One day after a controversial weigh-in fiasco kept Saturday’s main event intact, a middleweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Chris Weidman came to an abrupt and bizarre ending just as it was heating up at UFC 210 in Buffalo.
Mousasi (42-6-2) was ultimately declared the winner by TKO at 2:13 of Round 2 as the KeyBank Center crowd showered the Octagon with boos. The issue surrounded a pair of knees landed by Mousasi to the head of Weidman from the clinch.
Weidman (13-3), who was crouching forward, attempted to place both hands on the ground, thus making it illegal for Mousasi to land a knee or kick. But Mousasi smartly lifted up Weidman’s torso to deliver the knees, which lifted up Weidman’s hands simultaneously.
Referee Dan Miragliotta initially ruled the strikes to be illegal and awarded a dazed Weidman five minutes to recover. But despite the fact that instant replay is illegal in New York, cage side officials told Miragliotta that replays showed the strikes were legal, which he relayed to both fighters.
After a lengthy snafu in the center of the cage between referee, doctors and commissioners, the fight was ruled a TKO victory for Mousasi.
“I didn’t think his hands were on the canvas,” Mousasi said. “That’s not my fault. I don’t know, I wanted to continue. I can have a rematch, no problem. I wanted to continue to fight. I think he could’ve continued but he was stalling a bit.”
For Weidman, a former middleweight champion, the loss is a devastating one and his third consecutive.
“I think it was an illegal knee. Why would they stop the fight at all if it was a legal knee?” said Weidman. “Both of my hands were 100 percent down, why would they stop the fight?”
After he was shown a replay by UFC interviewer Joe Rogan on the big screen after the fight, Weidman changed his tune, agreeing the strike was legal.
“I guess you’re right,” he said. “I don’t know what to say.”
Weidman controlled the opening round with his wrestling by taking Mousasi down three times and controlling him on the ground. But Mousasi rallied in the second frame to hurt Weidman with stiff jabs and uppercuts before the abrupt finish.
“I apologize to Weidman. I like the guy, I have nothing against him,” Mousasi said. “These things happen in fights.”
The victory was Mousasi’s fifth straight in the final fight of his current UFC deal.
“Guys, I wanted to come out here and show you that you could come back from tough times and come back to be stronger,” Weidman said to the crowd. “Those setbacks are a platform for your comebacks. I was ready to do that for you and I’m sorry.”
