Confused by the Curtis Blaydes-Aleksei Oleinik finish at UFC 217? Here's an explanation

If you’re looking for bizarre violence that leaves everyone confused, it’s tough to beat a heavyweight prelim. Curtis Blaydes and Aleksei Oleinik made sure to remind us of that fact in just the second fight of UFC 217 on Saturday, and now that it’s over it’s still tough to know exactly what happened.

Here’s what we do know: Late in the opening round of the UFC Fight Pass prelim bout, Blaydes (8-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) put it on Oleinik (55-11-1 MMA, 4-2 UFC). It was fierce. Blaydes knocked him down once, then essentially let him fall down under his own power shortly thereafter, and the net result was to send a bloodied and dazed Oleinik staggering back to his corner when the round ended.

But early in the second, that’s when things got weird. As Oleinik was scrambling to get up off the mat, Blaydes went to soccer kick him in the head for some reason. It was dumb and blatantly illegal, but fortunately for Blaydes the kick missed.

Which is to say it mostly missed.

Replay confirmed that Blaydes made the slightest contact as his foot passed by Oleinik’s ear, resulting in basically a delicate flick of the ear from Blaydes’ toe.

Still, the attempt at an illegal blow was enough for referee Blake Grice to call in the doctor, who, in fairness, did have plenty to look at thanks to the earlier work Blaydes had done on Oleinik’s face. In the ensuing discussion, Oleinik did not seem terribly enthusiastic about continuing, and so the bout was waved off.

But wait, who wins? The pause in the action came as a result of a foul – and technically speaking, the intentional illegal kick did connect with Oleinik’s head – but you’d be hard-pressed to convince anyone that it had any effect.

After reviewing the replay and discussing it with UFC VP Marc Ratner and longtime referee Dan Miragliotta, Grice got back in the cage to declare it a TKO win for Blaydes, who summed up the confusion with this post-fight victory pose.

“A W is a W,” Blaydes said after the fight. “I still get my money. I still get to move up in the rankings.”

And thus, a strange ending to what had been an exciting heavyweight tilt. Somehow it managed to feel like the right result, even if it seemed like it might have taken some logically suspicious guesswork to get there.

For complete coverage of UFC 217, check out the UFC Events section of the site.