Manager: Alex Oliveira will appeal UFC 207 no-contest against Tim Means, wants rematch

Alex Oliveira and his team are open to a rematch following a controversial no-contest against Tim Means in the UFC Fight Pass-streamed opener of UFC 207.

But before that happens, Oliveira plans to appeal the bout’s official result, arguing it should have been ruled a disqualification win because Means landed illegal knees and later admitted he intended to throw them.

“This is wrong, and these thing have to be straightened out,” Oliveira manager Alex Davis on Friday told MMAjunkie. “It costs too much of these guys’ lives to let things go like that.”

Oliveira (16-3-1 MMA, 5-2 UFC) was taken backstage in a stretcher immediately after the bout, but Davis said the fighter was checked out at a local hospital and was not seriously injured.

Davis claims after the bout was stopped by referee Dan Miragliotta, who watch Means (26-7-1 MMA, 8-4 UFC) land the illegal knee, the overseeing Nevada State Athletic Commission did not allow him to rewatch the controversial sequence.

According to NSAC rules, the referee is the sole arbiter of the fight. Miragliotta might have requested a second look at the controversial strikes via instant replay, which is supposed to be available at major MMA events in Nevada. At this point, it’s not clear whether he requested a second look or whether instant replay was in use on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena, which hosted the pay-per-view event in Las Vegas.

“They were watching everything happen, and they didn’t let Miragliotta watch the replay,” Davis said.

NSAC Executive Director Bob Bennett declined comment on the matter.

Davis also said Means’ post-fight interview eliminates any claim that the knees were accidental, as was announced immediately after the fight. Means admitted in the cage and in his backstage interview that he believed the strikes were legal, saying he thought fighters needed to have three points of contact on the mat to be considered grounded. In fact, a fighter is grounded when anything other than the soles of his feet are touching the mat.

“The knees were intentional, so we will appeal,” Davis said. “This is wrong.”

NSAC decisions are notoriously difficult to overturn, with the commission’s rules allowing for a reversal only in the case of a scoring error, collusion, or the misapplication of the rules by the referee. Oliveira’s team no doubt will push for the latter as a basis of an appeal.

“You know how things go with the commission – they always think they’re right, but they’re not,” Davis said. “This part of the sport has to change. Things happen, we’re all human beings and we all commit errors, but they have to man up and face it.”

Davis said he wants the commission to overturn the decision and rule Oliveira the winner via disqualification, which would allow him to earn the win portion of his contracted purse. Oliveira’s coach, Otavio Duarte, said the Brazilian also has immediate plans on the line.

“We’re outraged that they didn’t give the win to ‘Cowboy,’ Duarte said. “If it was the other way around, they certainly would have given the win to the other guy. Everyone saw it was illegal, and (Means) said it himself during the interview, that he threw the strike intentionally. So there’s that.

“And Cowboy was semi-knocked out and people were saying that they didn’t want to go back to make a scene? He wanted to come back, the commission wouldn’t let him. They asked me to translate, to ask him to sit down. If the UFC wants to make this fight, we’d be more than happy to do it in Fortaleza. Because Cowboy is dying to fight. His plan was to beat Tim Means here and then fight in Fortaleza.”

For complete coverage of UFC 207, check out the UFC Events section of the site.