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On the UFC on FOX 1 prelim card, Robert Peralta landed a combination on Mackens Semerzier, sending him to the canvas, and into his fifth loss in eleven fights. However, instant replay revealed that the combination included a head butt, one referee John McCarthy did not see.
"I did not see their heads clash, causing the knockout," McCarthy explained. "Because if you look where I was at, Robbie's head was toward me, so Semerzier's head was on the other side, and they both threw a left hand and then a right hand that came across, and I thought those punches were what caused Mack to be hurt. (I) didn't even know that it was a headbutt."
"Once you look at it on the replay, absolutely it was the headbutt that caused it."
Had McCarthy seen the accidental headbutt, sufficient time had passed in the fight so that he could have ordered the fight stopped, and a judges decision made based on the action up to the stoppage.
Even if McCarthy did not see, but suspected a headbutt, California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) rules contain a process for the referee to confer with judges, or instant replay, which was available. However, McCarthy neither saw nor suspected a headbutt, and so these steps were not initiated.
Semerzier has called for a rematch.
"I think, as a fighter, that would only be right," Semerzier said. "Unless he wants to tuck it in his back pocket and tell people he knocked me out. Because he knows, I know, and everybody knows that's not the case.
"I was a man after the fight, and I hope he's a man in giving me a rematch, or asking for it at least."
Peralta previously was unenthusiastic about the prospect of a rematch.
"If that's what the UFC is giving me, then that's what I'll do," Peralta said. "I'm completely fine."
"It's not like when we clashed heads it put him out," he continued. "He was still aware. It knocked him down. I took a big lump, too. But I was able to finish the fight."
"It's unfortunate it had to end like that. I didn't even know that it was caused by a headbutt when he fell to the ground. I thought I caught him with a punch, and then I just finished it off."
Peralta's manager Jeff Clark was even more firmly against a rematch.
"To me, it looked like an incidental headbutt, and Robbie continued off of it and was able to stop the fight," Clark said. "At that point, it was up to the discretion of 'Big' John to decide what to do, and he let it go. Because of that, the judgement should stand."
However, Brian Butler-Au of SuckerPunch Entertainment filed an appeal with the CSAC, which was today announced to be successful.
It remains to be seen if the UFC wil grant a rematch, and whether the NC ruling will change the Perlata camp's mind.
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