“Common… It has to be No Contest”: Chris Weidman’s controversial win sparks social media outrage

Chris Weidman secured his first victory in almost four years at UFC Atlantic City with a technical decision win over Bruno Silva. However, the fight was not without controversy, as many, including UFC fighters, felt that it should have been ruled a No Contest.

Nonetheless, the victory reignited hope for Weidman, who before the fight had only one win in his past five fights inside the octagon. Moreover, he had also lost two grappling matches after recovering from his leg break.

Revisiting Weidman vs. Silva at UFC on ESPN 54: How eye-poking changed the game in a second?

Chris Weidman fought Bruno Silva in the featured bout at UFC Atlantic City. Even though, a pale shadow of his former self, Weidman, the former middleweight champion emerged victorious against Silva but not without controversy.

After a first round that saw Silva unable to launch any offense due to Weidman’s grappling and wrestling, the second and third rounds had some controversy. Chris Weidman won the second round on all the scorecards but he also inadvertently eye-poked Silva.

In the third round, the first controversy happened when there was a double-eye poke. It appeared that Silva’s poke at Weidman was far more damaging than that of Chris Weidman’s on Silva. However, Silva went to the ground and the referee intervened.

The most controversial aspect of the fight was its finish. Initially, it appeared that Chris Weidman’s left hook caught Silva in the eye, leading to follow-up shots that made the referee to stop the fight. However, Silva immediately protested, claiming he went down due to eye pokes.

Meanwhile, Weidman celebrated wildly and even jumped out of the cage. Upon further replay, it became evident that Weidman had poked Silva twice before he went down. Furthermore, the left hook from Weidman, presumed to be the finishing blow, did not even land on Silva.

The referee’s decision to award a finish was deemed incorrect, but Weidman ultimately won the fight via technical decision. Since the eye poke was unintentional and occurred in the third round, the judges rendered a decision based on the fight’s progression up until the moment before the referee intervened.

All the judges scored the first two rounds in favor of Weidman, along with the third round. Consequently, Weidman was granted a technical decision victory. However, the overwhelming sentiment in the MMA community was to make the fight a No Contest as per MMA Junkie.

What are people saying on social media?

After the decision to award victory to Chris Weidman, the MMA community shared their thoughts about what they felt about the decision. The majority did not agree to the decision as they wanted it to be a no-contest.

“Common… It has to be No Contest,” tweeted Diana Belbita, reflecting the majority opinion of fight fans. However, others felt that Weidman would have won anyway.

Belal Muhammad was very vocal on X as he stated that Weidman punched a ‘hole’ in the eye of Bruno Silva who has now won only one of his past six fights inside the octagon.

Justin Gaethje, the BMF champion blamed the ‘shitty’ gloves used by the UFC. Trevor Wittman, Gaethje’s head coach, had designed a curved MMA glove that protects fighters from eye pokes.

Derek Brunson, the ex-UFC fighter presently with the PFL, also stated what he felt about the fight. The ex-UFC middleweight often tweets about fights.

Adrian Yanez, the UFC bantamweight on a losing streak, felt that the situation was very ‘unfortunate’ when looked at the perspective of Bruno Silva.

Brian Kelleher reminded fight fans of the previous fight that ended similarly. Nursultan Ruziboev defeated Sedriques Dumas by first-round KO but replays showed that Dumas was pocked before the finish. However, the decision of the referee was upheld.

Sodiq Yusuff, the 13th-ranked UFC featherweight, empathized with Bruno Silva. He felt that Silva was wronged in the scenario.

What do you think of the decision? Was Chris Weidman at fault or did he deserve to be the victor? Leave your thoughts below!