Roy Nelson proved to the world on Saturday night that he still packs a holy haymaker from hell in his arsenal.
Unfortunately for Big Country, his thunderous second-round knockout win over Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva wasn’t what everyone was focusing on after the fight.
Nelson dropped the Brazilian legend with a monstrous right hand and landed five more huge haymakers on the downed opponent before referee John McCarthy had seen enough and called the fight at 4:10 of the second stanza.
After Bigfoot failed to intelligently defend the fifth head shot from the ground, Nelson hesitated, looked towards the referee, and then the fight was called. Clearly upset that it hadn’t been called sooner, Nelson walked away in a huff and threw his arms up in the air in protest. He then charged back across the Octagon to kick McCarthy lightly as he checked on Silva.
Roy Nelson kicks & flips off Big John McCarthy for stopping the fight too late #UFCBrasilia pic.twitter.com/IZvmxGigeu
— Ryan (@RJD_96) September 25, 2016
Nelson played down the incident at the post-fight press conference, admitting that he “pushed” the ref because he was unhappy with how late the stoppage came.
“It was a push. It was more of like, dude, come on.”
“Then we had a conversation in the cage. I was like, ‘Dude, he was knocked out.’ And [McCarthy] 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. I know what a knockout is. Just because the guy didn’t roll his eyes into the back of his head, or shake, or whatever … it was just one of those things.”
Nelson apologised to McCarthy for his reaction, but confessed that he did not regret doing it. He thought Bigfoot was taking a needless amount of damage because the referee took his time stepping in.
“I didn’t want to hurt ‘Bigfoot’ more than I had to. And I got taken by the moment, because it’s like I’m beating the shit out of somebody and you’re like, dude, enough is enough. And for me, it hurt my feelings. And I apologise to Big John, but I wouldn’t take it back. It just hurt me, that I’ve got to keep on hitting a guy that doesn’t need to be hit.”
The UFC confirmed after the bout that they would not punish Nelson for the incident and that any further action would have to be taken up by the Brazilian athletic commission (CABMMA). The CABMMA told MMA Fighting that they would not take any action unless McCarthy filed a complaint.
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