Alex Oliviera was the victim of some destructive knees to the head from Tim Means’s in UFC 207’s prelim opener. Unfortunately for Means and fortunately for Oliveira, referee Dan Miragliotta stepped in quickly as the knees were illegal due to Oliviera being a downed opponent with a knee on the mat and the fight was ruled a no-contest.
The no-contest ruling was a result of Miragliotta deeming the knees to be “accidental.” One look at a replay shows that they were anything but accidental and Means admitted as much in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. Because of this, Oliviera and his team plan to appeal the ruling, aiming to have it overturned to a disqualification of Means which would put a win on the record for Oliviera.
“We will appeal that,”Oliviera’s coach Otavio Duarte told MMAFighting. “We want this victory. In the post-fight interview, he admits he thought it was a legal knee. If he says that, it was intentional. He contradicts the referee’s decision. That’s ridiculous.”
Oliviera was clearly affected by the blows in the moments after the fight was stopped and was taken out of the cage on a stretcher and taken to a Las Vegas hospital, but is doing okay now, according to his team.
Hiscoe’s Analysis: There is little question that the knees were illegal. What was most surprising was that both Joe Rogan and Marc Ratner were on the broadcast saying that they thought it was a legal blow. Miragliotta’s decision to rule it a no-contest is also questionable, but he may have been trying to save Means a loss on his record, as it was early in the fight and he didn’t deliver the knees in malice, he just had an incorrect interpretation of the rules, so the no-contest ruling may have been a compromise decision on Miragliotta’s behalf. Having decisions overturned through appeal is tough, but I would say Oliviera has a case. Hopefully, he is truly not hurt too badly from the knees and can fight again soon. Perhaps in a rematch with Means as it was a good fight up until it was stopped.
MONDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-Neil Magny told TMZSports.com that he would welcome Ronda Rousey to come train at Elevation Fight Team in Colorado. He said of Rousey’s second straight loss: “Don’t be the definition of insanity. If you’re doing the same thing over and over and trying to expect a different result, then you’re doing something wrong.”
-After Tony Ferguson asked UFC to pay him the same as Khabib Nurmagomedov in order to fight him only to be turned down, Nurmagomedov tweeted that he would put up the extra $200,000 himself to make their pays equal. “If you’ve got Khabib willing to sacrifice his life and give me $200,000 of his own money, something’s wrong with that sh–,” Ferguson said on “The MMA Hour” today. “I’m not going to take that guy’s money.”
-Blagoy Ivanov vs. Shawn Jordan has been booked for the WSOF heavyweight championship on Feb. 25. No city or venue has been named as of yet.
NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: SUNDAY NEWS DIGEST 1/1: Rousey releases post-loss statement about her future, busy weekend notebook (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)
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