Ion Cutelaba could have hit referee Kevin MacDonald after stopping his fight against Magomed Ankalaev in the first round.
It was according to legendary MMA referee John McCarthy, who called the UFC Fight Night 169 decision “a horrible” decision.
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There was a real drama during the Cutelaba vs Ankalaev fight
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The fans were in arms when Ankalaev was named the winner of the bout in just 40 seconds as MacDonald stepped in to end the bout.
Cutelaba flickered to his feet after receiving a few head shots, but many believe he was just pretending because as soon as the stop was announced, he was facing MacDonald and looking completely compos mentis.
The official UFC Twitter account even called it a “controversial finish,” while fans and other MMA fighters criticized the “worst stop ever” in the sport.
You can watch the dramatic incident below …
Cutelaba has said it will contest the result with Virginia’s Boxing, Martial Arts and Professional Wrestling Advisory Board because it strongly disagrees with MacDonald’s ruling.
And he has a supporter in the legendary “Big” John McCarthy – with longtime MMA referee claiming MacDonald was lucky he was not “timed” after making his decision.
Speaking on the Weighing In podcast with Josh Thomson, McCarthy said, “I want to ask you a question: you’re a fighter, okay. You have been there and you have seen injured guys.
“And then you saw guys acting like they were injured. What makes you different? What makes you different? Come on, there are things.”
Thomson stressed that a fighter’s legs are essential to knowing if he is injured or faked.
“Absolutely! That’s their basis,” continued McCarthy. “So if you’re the referee, you see this guy starting to do this thing [jerk around], I’m not watching this [points to head], I look to see how is its base?
“Because it will tell me.
“I’m going to look and say,” it didn’t seem like it should have hurt you. It could have – I’m not saying it can’t – but it didn’t seem like it should.
“So instead of doing that, where I go to what we call” the microphone “- I start to look at his face – I step back and look at” the macro “. I look at the whole package. And I look at the fighter’s base.
“That tells me everything. That tells me: look at how solid its base is. He is not injured. You do not have a solid base when you are injured. “
“You have to leave this guy [Cutelaba] come on, because he rejects! He’s fighting! He never hit the ground, he never fell into the fence, he never did anything stanky-leg.
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Cutelaba was visibly furious as MacDonald called the judgment
“He f *** ing waved his upper body!
“The guys are constantly moving their upper bodies. What are you looking at! And then you stop the fight?
“And like you said, he’s lucky he wasn’t timed. Because you could immediately see that Ion was fine. He’s like,” what are you !? “
“He’s trying to rock this guy, he’s taking shots, I’m not saying he’s not – the right hand that triggered, worried, touched – but I didn’t think it really hurt him.
“He started doing his little thing [jerking around]. You could see it had frozen him for a second, just that half a second. So he felt it.
“But watch its base – it’s fine.”
