Bruno Silva wonât like what âBigâ John McCarthy had to say about the New Jersey commissionâs handling of the controversial ending to his UFC on ESPN 54 fight with Chris Weidman.
This past Saturday, Weidman came away victorious after initially stopping Silva by ground-and-pound for a third-round TKO at Boardwalk Hall. The result was instantly called into question after a slow-motion replay showed Weidman egregiously poking Silva in both eyes a moment before the finishing sequence. Upon further review by referee Gary Copeland and the State Athletic Control Board, which regulated UFC on ESPN 54, the fight went to the judgesâ scorecards because the fight entered Round 3, resulting still in an announced unanimous decision (but actually technical decision) win for Weidman.
The controversial outcome naturally upset Silva and didnât sit well with many observers on social media, but McCarthy, a former referee and current PFL analyst, explained Monday on his âWeighing Inâ podcast that the commission ultimately got it right â even if he did take umbrage with Copelandâs lack of warnings against two previous Weidman eye pokes before the two that led to the finish.
âWhen Gary Copeland has Chris Weidman, who is putting his fingers out like itâs a pitchfork â you need to address that as the official,â McCarthy told co-host Josh Thomson. âI donât care that youâre in New Jersey where Chris Weidman is a hero. Iâm being honest: I wanted Chris Weidman to win this fight. ⌠But I canât have Chris Weidman getting preferential treatment as far as youâre the one creating this problem. You need to address the problem and make sure the individual who is creating the problem doesnât do it anymore. Well, he did do it more.â
McCarthy continued: âI donât think Gary saw the eye pokes (just before the finish), so that was understandable. 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 theyâve seen. Who won that round? You already have two rounds that have been judged. This need(ed) to go to a technical decision. Itâs not a unanimous decision victory. Itâs a technical decision victory for Chris Weidman.â
âChris had won the first two rounds. And if youâre 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 itâs 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, âOK, we see the foul. This is what we do.â 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 wouldâve 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.â
Even if the commission got it right based upon the rules in the end, Silva is still sure to feel wronged. Silva told MMA Fighting that he plans to appeal the result, but McCarthy explained how that is likely to be a futile process for him.
âWhat theyâre doing is, by going to that technical decision, itâs the right thing to do. Iâm just gonna tell you straight out,â McCarthy said. âBecause giving Chris Weidman a victory off of TKO, then youâre saying that youâre not addressing the fact that there was a foul. They are addressing that fact. Gary Copeland couldâve decided to have taken points for the fouls. He didnât do that. Thatâs his decision. ⌠So the commission actually did the right thing. But, yes, by doing that right thing, theyâre taking the ability of Bruno Silva to protest the stopping of the fight as a TKO and making it a no contest later on. Theyâre taking that away by doin the right thing.â
When fighters pose for a photo you get the fist pose.
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The Cap
Am I wrong to say that Bruno Silva was eyepoked five times in that fight, including twice that actually ended the fight?
How many times can you accidentally poke someone in the eye in a fight before the official stance is that it canât be classified as accidental?
Horseshit night full of bad reffing.
This is the UFC. Literally the goat of the UFC got there by eye poking, feinting eyepokes and splaying his fingers towards his opponents eyes as he backs up as his defense when in danger.
The better question is who can eyepoke and get away with it. Is it anyone or just certain fighters?
this
i believe jbjâs career was built intentionally on the threat of eyepokes
He got away with it when DC was bringing the heat, he eye poked him to restart the fight.
Should have lost a point automatically
Yep that was the story of the trilogy. Eyepokes. They each eyepoked their way to victory.
DC did it first.
Then stipe, tired of DCâs bullshit did it in return and won. Then DC cried about it.
Either way, they each eyepoked their way to the heavyweight title.
LOL at baby Brock Lesner
Eyepokes wonât go away unless they are aggressively punished. I canât think of any other sport where a player can get away with so many illegal fouls, even if they are considered accidental (which, by the way, is hard to determine in a lot of cases).
Also the pressure is always on the fighter who got fouled to continue (both from the fans and often the refs/UFC).
Fantastic point ( 
). Itâs a combination of the gloves and there not being enough of a penalty to dissuade fighters from making an effort not to do it. Similar to grabbing the cage to stop takedown attempts.