“Big Country” Roy Nelson got a big win over “Bigfoot” Silva last night, but he also gave a big boot to Big John McCarthy in the moments after the fight.
Nelson knocked Silva down with a right hand in the second round of their fight at in Brasilia, Brazil last night and then followed up with several hard punches to a prone Silva on the ground until McCarthy called the fight off. Seconds after walking away, Nelson walked back towards McCarthy who was kneeling down aiding to Silva and delivered a slight but deliberate kick to McCarthy’s back.
Nelson categorized the incident as a push rather than a kick and did not regret his actions. “It was a push. It was more of like, ‘Dude, come on’,” he said at the post-fight press conference.
Nelson claimed that he felt McCarthy let the fight go on too long and that Silva was knocked out on the ground. “I was like, ‘Dude, he was knocked out.’ And he was like, ‘No, he wasn’t.’ And I’m like, dude, I know what a knockout is. I knock people out. That’s what I do for a living.”
Nelson also went on to say that he didn’t regret the altercation, adding that he apologized to McCarthy but that he “wouldn’t take it back.”
UFC has opted not to take any disciplinary action against Nelson, but McCarthy is free to file a complaint with the Brazilian commission, who could then take sanctions against Nelson if they see fit. Big John hasn’t indicated if he has or intends to file a complaint at this point.
Hiscoe’s Analysis: Roy Nelson has said and done a lot of weird things over the years, but this is the most puzzling thing he’s ever done. I’m shocked that UFC is not choosing to punish Nelson at all, since he and Dana White have never been a big fan of Big Country’s. I don’t think that deliberately pushing or kicking a referee the way Nelson did is ever excusable. It’s not as if he was knocked out and didn’t know what he was doing, and it’s not like it was in the heat of the moment. Nelson walked away from the fight and then made the decision to turn around and push/kick McCarthy who was tending to a downed fighter.
I love all of the shenanigans that make MMA so entertaining, like scuffles between fighters at weigh-ins and press conferences, but I have no interest in seeing altercations in the cage between fighters and referees or fighters and coaches, as we saw at UFC 203 with Fabricio Werdum and Edmond Tarverdyan. These things don’t lead to anything and they make the fighters look bad. Last month I wrote about how the UFC has matured over recent years, but based on what we’ve seen these past few weeks, I may have to take that back.
Check out the post-fight press conference video for Nelson’s comments and more.
SUNDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-Performance bonuses went to Eric Spicely for his upset submission of Thiago Santos and to Vicente Luque for his knockout of Hector Urbina. Fight of the night went to Erick Silva vs. Luan Chagas. Silva submitted Chagas late in the third round of the fight. All four fighters get $50,000 bonuses. (LINK)
-Last night’s “UFC Fight Night: Brasilia” drew a sell-out crowd of 8,410 fans. (SOURCE)
-Dana White posted a picture of the gruesome gash above Paul Felder’s right eye to his Instagram account. Felder lost his fight to Francisco Trinaldo by doctor’s stoppage due to the severity of the cut and subsequent bleeding. It’s too graphic to just post, but check it out here.
-UFC officially announced on the broadcast, a five-round, main event fight between Alexander Gustafsson and Antonio Rogerio Noguiera to take place November 19 in Sao Paolo, Brazil. For more, here’s our story on that posted earlier today.
-Here are the results from this morning’s Rizin show from Saitama, Japan (via Bloody Elbow).
Kron Gracie def. Hideo Tokoro via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke, Round 1)
Rena Kubota def. Miyu Yamamoto via Submission (Front Choke, Round 1)
Mirko Cro Cop def. Hyun Man Myung via Submission (Arm-Triangle Choke, Round 1)
Kaido Hoovelson def. Kazuyuki Fujita via Unanimous Decision
Daron Cruickshank def. Andy Souwer via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke, Round 1)
Erson Yamamoto def. Kizaemon Saiga via Split Decision
Jiri Prochazka def. Mark Tanios via Unanimous Decision
Valentin Moldavsky def. Karl Albrektsson via Unanimous Decision
Amir Aliakbari def. Joao Isidoro Almeida via TKO (Strikes, Round 1)
Szymon Bajor def. Teodoras Aukstuolis via Unanimous Decision
Charles Bennett def. Minoru Kimura via TKO (Strikes, Round 1)
Kanako Murata def. Kyra Batara via Unanimous Decision
Gabi Garcia def. Destanie Yarbrough via Submission (Keylock, Round 1)
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ROUND-UP
-Krzysztof Jotko vs. Thales Leites, Christian Colombo, vs. Luis Henrique, Manny Gamburyan vs. Johnny Eduardo, Matheus Nicolau vs. Ulka Sasaki, Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs. Marco Rogerio de Lima, and Michael Graves vs. Sergio Moraes were all announced for the Nov. 19 show from Sao Paolo.
-Jim Miller vs. Thiago Alves has been made official for UFC 205, Nov. 12 from New York City.
-Mirko Cro Cop vs. Wanderlei Silva at the Rizin Grand Prix quarterfinals on Dec. 29 from Saitama, Japan.
CATCH UP WITH YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: SATURDAY NEWS DIGEST 9/24: Dillashaw offers a $100,000 bet to get Cruz to accept his challenge, Invicta, Poirier, Cyborg, Barao (w/Cervantes Analysis)
(MMATorch’s Daily News Digest features the top story of the day with added analysis, plus smaller tidbits in the News Notes section. Mike Hiscoe has a background in film criticism and previously wrote for the DVD Town and Movie Metropolis websites. His passion for Mixed Martial Arts goes back to 2005, but it was in the promotion for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie that he really got hooked.”This is my house, I build it,” is still among the all-time great UFC promos. You can follow Mike on social media under the tag @mikehiscoe. He now provides his experienced writing and perspective on live MMA events for MMATorch.)
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