Marc Goddard, John McCarthy: No controversy in Simon-Dvalishvili outcome, just misclassification

Veteran MMA referee Marc Goddard sees no controversy in the stoppage of Ricky Simon vs. Merab Dvalishvili.

Goddard’s only issue is that Simon’s win was classified incorrectly as a TKO instead of a submission that resulted from a guillotine choke in the final minute of the UFC Fight Night 128 bout Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

“(The win) actually should be recorded as a submission – a technical submission,” Goddard told FS1 reporter Heidi Androl backstage after the event.

Goddard was cageside for the FS1-televised fight and watched the stoppage. He said Dvalishvili potentially went unconscious multiple times – potentially several seconds before the end of the third round, and for sure when the final bell sounded.

The moment Dvalishvili (7-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC) drifted off, he said, Simon (13-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) was the winner.

“Even though he came around pretty sharp afterwards, he most definitely lost the fight under the ruling, and the right guy went away with the win,” Goddard said.

At times during the final sequence, Dvalishvili’s body language appeared to contradict the assertion that he lost consciousness. The fighter bicycled his legs while in the choke and responded to a check of his arms from referee Liam Kerrigan, who did not wave off the bout before the final bell. Kerrigan also appeared not to wave off the bout in the moments after the fight’s conclusion, as Dvalishvili was immediately attended to by cageside doctors.

Goddard, though, said Kerrigan did wave off the bout. The only thing that had to be done, he said, was to make sure officials knew what had happened.

“It was loud, and I just wanted to make sure that they weren’t going to go to the scorecards, because that’s the way it looked like it was going to be heading,” Goddard said. “But the referee, Liam Kerrigan, to his credit, when he saw he was out, he actually waved it off.

“I think there was a little bit of a rush. People thought they were going to read the scorecards, so I said, ‘No, no, no. The guy has lost the fight.'”

Goddard’s take was backed by veteran MMA official and current Bellator commentator John McCarthy, who said the fight should be declared a submission win for Simon (via Twitter).

Despite the confusing end, the bantamweight fight delivered several moments of excitement for the crowd, and the UFC awarded both fighters a $50,000 bonus for “Fight of the Night.”

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 128, check out the UFC Events section of the site.