A controversial victory de Chris Weidman about Bruno Blindado at UFC Atlantic City deeply displeased many fans who felt that the Brazilian, hit by four fingers in the eye by the North American, including two consecutive ones that decided the fight, had been unfairly treated by the refereeing. Considered one of the main referees in the history of MMA, 'Big' John McCarthy disagrees and believes that the decision made by the judges was correct.
During a recent edition of the podcast 'Weightin In', McCarthy began by stating that Chris Weidman he couldn’t receive special treatment from the referees for fighting at home in New Jersey.
“When Gary Copeland sees Chris Weidman opening your fingers like a fork, you need, as an officer, to warn about it. I don't care if you're in New Jersey, where Weidman is a hero. To be honest: I wanted Chris Weidman win the fight, but I couldn't give him preferential treatment. You need to state the problem and ensure that the individual creating the problem doesn't do it again. Well, he did it again,” said the former referee.
Big John explained that, having entered the third round, the fight could no longer be judged as having no result and, realizing the mistake committed by Weidman, the technical knockout initially indicated by Gary Copeland should have been replaced by a technical decision, with the opening of the judges' sheets scoring the fight until the moment of interruption.
“I don’t think Gary saw the fingerprints right before the interruption, so it’s understandable. He made the decision to stop the fight. Once stopped, they can look at the video and see the fingerprints. They need the judges to score the third round as far as they saw it. You already have two judged rounds. This needed to go to the technical decision. It is not a unanimous decision. It is a technical decision to Chris Weidman. Chris had won the first two rounds and was winning the third. He didn't win because the referee didn't see him committing a foul. The commission saw the fault. As we entered the third round, we would have to go to the technical decision. If it happened in the second round, it would be a no-contest fight,” he explained.
Finally, Big John McCarty judged the decision taken by the arbitration to be correct and stated that the technical decision could make any appeal filed by Bruno Blindado.
“What they did was the right thing to do. If they gave victory to Chris Weidman by technical knockout, you would indicate that you did not see the foul. They are showing that they saw it. Gary Copeland could have chosen to take points away, but he didn't. It was his choice. The commission did the right thing. And by doing the right thing, they took the power away from Bruno Blindado to protest against the result and turn it into a 'no contest'. They took away that right by doing the right thing,” he concluded.
duel between Bruno Blindado (left) and Chris Weidman (dir). Photo: Reproduction/Instagram @ufceurasia
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