Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman never truly expected to win the appeal of his UFC 210 loss to Gegard Mousasi.
Despite still being ‘unhappy’ with the controversy surrounding the New York State Athletic Commission’s (NYSAC) decision to award Mousasi the win, the New York-native did not hold out much hope for an overruling in his favor (via MMAFighting):
“I just got it back in the mail yesterday,” said Weidman. “I did not win the appeal. I don’t think it was anything we didn’t expect. I didn’t even read it,” Weidman admitted. “My wife was reading it.”
The NYSAC confirmed to Weidman that replays are permitted where an injury takes place in competition. As Weidman had indicated that there was an injury, the 33-year-old’s appeal was essentially judged to be invalid:
“I guess when there’s something that happens inside of the Octagon and it has to do with an injury the commission is allowed to look at the replay. I guess, something like that is what it is about.
“The rules that were explained to us are that there was no replay. If something happens where there is an injury they are allowed to look at it. That’s pretty much what I heard from my wife.”
Despite expecting that the appeal would be rejected, Weidman was compelled to seek answers given the original nature of how the fight ended. With a fight with Kelvin Gastelum set for July 22. as the headline of UFC on Fox 25 in his home county of Nassau, New York, Weidman is moving on:
“Either way, I didn’t put my eggs in that basket,” he said. “I would’ve been kind of surprised [if they had reversed the decision]. For them to admit they were wrong, I would’ve been kind of surprised.”
