Kyle Nelson is going home with a win on his record and he would be celebrating a knockout if not for referee Dan Miragliotta completely blowing a call at UFC Vancouver.
The controversial moment unfolded with time running out in the first round of Saturday’s contest at Rogers Arena after Nelson hurt Matt Frevola on the feet. Nelson had him stunned and blasted away with punches on the ground. The shots were slipping through Frevola’s defense and it appeared Nelson was cruising towards a finish.
That was confirmed when the referee stepped into stop the contest with three seconds left on the clock, but in a truly bizarre moment, Miragliotta subsequently declared the fight would continue because it was the end of the round.
Check out the strange scene below.
UFC vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner later explained on the broadcast that Miragliotta claimed he heard the horn sound—although there was no audible horn on the broadcast when Miragliotta intervened—and that led to the stoppage.
The fight continued and Nelson was able to earn a unanimous decision victory, but he admitted the confusion about the stoppage nearly had him gassed out for the rest of the fight.
“I thought I won the fight at the end of the first,” Nelson said afterwards. “I got up to kind of shake my opponent’s hand and then somebody’s yelling, it’s not over! It’s not over! I’m like I just blew all my gas at the end. It’s not over now? What’s going on?
“The rest of the fight was kind of recovering from pouring all my energy at the end of the first.”
Replays clearly showed Miragliotta stepped in with three seconds left on the clockm but still the fight continued.
This isn’t the first incident involving Miragliotta because he produced a similar mistake back at UFC Kansas City when he stepped in during two separate fights to stop the action after hearing the clapper to warn there was 10 seconds remaining in the round. Rather than waiting for the actual horn to stop the action, Miragliotta stepped in when the clapper sounded.
Ultimately, Nelson still got the win, but by all accounts he should be heading home with a knockout victory after what should have been a finish of Frevola on Saturday.
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