Jake Rosholt believes officials made the wrong call this past Friday. The ex-UFC middleweight fought John Ott at Titan Fighting Championships 18 and was disqualified after he threw an illegal knee in the third and final round.
But Rosholt today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the knee was unintentional and the fight should have been ruled a technical decision or no-contest rather than a disqualification.
Officials made the ruling after determining Ott was unable to continue the fight, which took place at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., and aired live on HDNet. Rosholt had dominated the fight – and left Ott a badly bloodied mess – before the illegal blow landed.
Rosholt and his management team appealed the ruling and have been told the Kansas Athletic Commission, which oversaw the bout, is reviewing the fight. KAC officials could not be reached for comment.
"When you go back to the video, his knee is down, and he was on his way back up," Rosholt said. "I'm not trying to say it wasn't (illegal). I'm saying it was completely unintentional. I had no idea his other knee was on the ground."
A technical decision can result when a foul brings a halt to a fight, according to the Unified Rules of MMA. If the foul is ruled unintentional, one or more points are deducted from the offending fighter's scorecard, and judges render their decision based on the completed rounds. The fight also can be ruled a no-contest. However, if the fight is ruled intentional, a disqualification results.
Titan CEO Joe Kelly said the Unified Rules were used for this past Friday's bout.
"In situations like that where it's a nationally televised show, decisions have to be made spur of the moment," he said. "Wrong, right or indifferent, that's why they have the appeal process. It is being looked at by the commission as we speak, and a decision should be made pretty expeditiously."
The loss broke a four-fight win streak for Rosholt (11-4), who was released by the UFC in late 2009 after a loss to Kendall Grove at UFC 106. Ott (9-8), meanwhile, got back in the win column after a decision loss to Bobby Lashley at Titan Fighting Championship 17.
As an example of the rule, Rosholt pointed to the first fight between Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone, which took place at WEC 38 and was ruled a technical decision in favor of Varner when Cerrone threw an unintentional knee that rendered his opponent unable to continue. The bout was contested in California, which also utilizes the Unified Rules.
In that case, Rosholt said, the rulings should be similar.
"I feel like if it's called correctly in how I've seen fights called in the past, that's how it should go," he said. "But if worse came to worse, and it's decided to be a no contest, I'm completely happy with that too.
"I just feel like having to take a loss on my record for something that was unintentional – that just doesn't seem right."
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