Greg Nelson, the head coach of UFC lightweight powerhouse Nik Lentz, has revealed that the illegal knee delivered by Charles Oliveira this past weekend in Pittsburgh broke the eye socket of Lentz and will continue to lobby to have the result of the fight ruled a no-contest. Speaking via MMAFighting.com Nelson said:
“It’s the illegal knee that basically knocked Nik Lentz out so he could get his back and hook him. I mean, he was clearly down. That knee broke Nik Lentz’s eye socket, so it was not a soft knee. He took his time, held the back of the head, wound up the knee and then let it go. …It was a super hard knee that ended up doing a lot of damage.”
“All the other referees were jumping up, guys from the commission were jumping up, I was jumping up. A lot of people were wondering what was going on, why the fight wasn’t being stopped, because it was so blatant. Then the crowd, when they saw the replay, it was doubly obvious to them. I don’t think it was done on purpose. It was done in the heat of the moment, but it was still done.”
Greg Sirb, the executive director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission had this to say about the incident and whether the outcome out be changed.“After the referee came to me and we said we’d look at it, he had no qualms about looking at it, and we’re in the process of doing that. We looked at it a little bit last night and the ref will look at it again today, just to make sure we’re on the same page. We should have something I imagine some time [Wednesday].”
Oliveira has since questioned why the result should be overturned, arguing that the action continued for a prolonged period before he forced the submission. The Brazilian wonder-kid has even offered to return his $50,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus if he can keep the win. If only it was that easy…By Michael Pepper
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