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The California State Athletic Commission on Monday denied Nkuta’s appeal to overturn his technical submission defeat against Adriano Moraes at MVP: Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano. Nkuta argued that Moraes held a fight-ending choke beyond the final horn and that referee Herb Dean mishandled the sequence.
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However, the commission ruled there was insufficient evidence to change the official result.
California State Athletic Commission denies Phumi Nkuta appeal after Adriano Moraes fight
On May 16, Nkuta and Moraes clashed in a flyweight bout on the main card of MVP’s Rousey vs. Carano-headlined event.
Near the end of the fight, Moraes had Nkuta in a choke. As the final bell rang, the former held on to the choke for what Nkuta claims was around 2.15 seconds after the horn. The official result was a technical submission victory for the former One Championship titleholder.
Nkuta then filed an appeal to overturn the loss, claiming that he was still conscious when the final bell rang, but went out after time had expired because Moraes held the choke. He further argued that the fight should have gone to the judges’ scorecards, where Nkuta believes he did enough to secure a decision victory.
CSAC executive director Andy Foster did not deny that the choke was held for longer than it was necessary, but said that there was no definitive evidence that Nkuta was not unconscious at the bell.
“I bet I’ve watched it 80 times now. We’ve watched it over and over. I’m still unsure when he went unconscious. When we’re not sure about something, it needs to be clear and convincing evidence if this commission is going to flip a fight, just to be very clear,” Foster said of the judgement (via MMA Junkie).
Nkuta, who traveled from Las Vegas to Sacramento to attend Monday’s hearing in person, said that he remembers hearing the final horn. The commission did not respond directly to these arguments from Nkuta and his attorney, Lance Spaude, apart from a brief comment by commissioner Dr. AnnaMaria De Mars, a former judo champion and the mother of Ronda Rousey.
“We ask the officials to make a judgement call under very difficult circumstances,” Dr. De Mars said. “You’re there. There are millions of people watching you. To change somebody’s decision, it has to be very egregious. I’m sitting here thinking about choking people and how fast your reaction time is. Is holding something for two seconds, when he’s under just as much pressure as you, a real egregious, deliberate foul? I just don’t see it that way.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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