Gegard Mousasi's UFC 210 win over Chris Weidman was a mess. Can it be fixed?

Gegard Mousasi and Chris Weidman showed up a few minutes apart at UFC 210’s post-event press conference, each with a very different story to tell about the exact same fight. That’s not so unusual, especially for a bout that ends in controversy.

The weird thing about this one was how hard it was to say that one of them was wrong and the other was right. And that’s the kind of thing that makes deciding what to do next a tricky business.

Consider Mousasi’s (42-6-2 MMA, 9-3 UFC) point of view. The way he sees it, he had Weidman (13-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) in trouble, was in the process of wearing him down and eventually out, and then he launched a couple of completely legal knee strikes that brought him closer to that goal.

Referee Dan Miragliotta intervened – incorrectly, as it turned out – but that’s not Mousasi’s fault. It’s also not his fault that the fight got called off for reasons that still remain unclear, resulting in an unsatisfying TKO victory.

What did Mousasi do, except try to win the fight using every inch of latitude given to him by the unified rules? And did he win, so how can we blame him for wanting to move on up the ranks in search of that elusive title shot?

But then there’s Weidman. His position is that, sure, he was in a bad spot when the fight was halted, but it wasn’t like he was getting his butt kicked. He won the first round on all three judges’ scorecards. The second round was still up for grabs. It’s not like he told Miragliotta to get in there and stop the fight.

Speaking of which, if Miragliotta stopped the fight due to what he believed to be illegal knees, and if the New York State Athletic Commission doesn’t allow the use of instant replay to review those strikes, how did we end up with a TKO win for Mousasi? Illegal knees plus an inability to continue equals a disqualification. And if Miragliotta changed his mind about whether the knees were legal, when and why did he change it?

Nothing about the stoppage adds up, which is why you can’t blame Weidman if he appeals the loss and calls for a rematch. What, is he supposed to just accept that he got railroaded into defeat for his third straight loss?

There are no good answers here. If the result gets overturned, Mousasi gets robbed of a win. If it doesn’t, Weidman gets unfairly stuck with a loss. If you book an immediate rematch, you halt Mousasi’s ascent up the ranks. If you don’t, you’re essentially telling Weidman that you don’t care if he got screwed.

Mistakes are bound to happen from time to time, even among the best referees. We’re also probably doing ourselves no favors with a set of rules that may or may not have been updated recently, depending on when and where you fight. Even then, if the difference between a foul and a legal blow is as murky as a hand that may or may not be grazing the mat at the moment of impact, we’re asking for trouble.

Since any outcome in a situation like this is bound to be a flawed one, seems to me the thing to do is to minimize the damage on both sides. Better to make two people slightly unhappy than to arbitrarily single out one person to take the full weight of the bummer.

With that in mind, let’s split the difference. Overturn the result of the fight, changing it to a no-contest instead of a win for Mousasi, but don’t book the rematch. Let Mousasi move forward and make his case for a title shot. Let Weidman take the loss off his record and try again for a career turnaround against someone else.

It’s not a perfect fix, but it’s better than how things stand now. The biggest obstacle to actually making it happen is probably the commission, which is funny, since it’s the commission and its officials who gave us this mess to begin with.

If we’re going to untangle it at all, first we need them to admit that they were wrong – even if it won’t magically make things right.

For complete coverage of UFC 210, check out the UFC Events section of the site.