{"id":38341,"date":"2026-05-18T15:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Aljamain-Sterling-Merab-Dvalishvili-criticize-officiating-in-controversial-MVP-bout-201231"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:55:11","slug":"aljamain-sterling-merab-dvalishvili-criticize-officiating-in-controversial-mvp-bout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/aljamain-sterling-merab-dvalishvili-criticize-officiating-in-controversial-mvp-bout\/","title":{"rendered":"Aljamain Sterling, Merab Dvalishvili criticize officiating in controversial MVP bout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Aljamain
\nSterling<\/a> and Merab
\nDvalishvili<\/a> believe their training partner, Phumi
\nNkuta<\/a>, was robbed on the MVP MMA card.<\/p>\n

Nkuta (11-1) took on Adriano
\nMoraes<\/a> (22-6) in a bantamweight outing at
\nMost Valuable Promotions “Rousey vs. Carano”<\/a> on Saturday at the
\nIntuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. While Nkuta picked apart
\nMoraes on the feet, the former ONE
\nChampionship<\/a> champion had the edge on the ground. The highly
\ncompetitive fight met with a controversial ending in the final
\nround. <\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Moraes secured a rear-naked choke in the final second of the fight.
\nWhile Nkuta seemed to be in his senses till the final bell, Moraes
\nheld on to the choke even for a few seconds, even after the bell,
\ndespite referee Herb Dean<\/a>
\nintervening. Nkuta was choked out unconscious, and it was declared
\na submission win for Moraes. <\/p>\n

The fight gave Dvalishvili immediate flashbacks of his controversial loss<\/a> against Ricky Simon<\/a>
\nin 2018. While \u201cThe Machine\u201d was dominating the fight, Simon
\nsecured a guillotine in the final minute of the fight. Dvalishvili
\nrefused to tap for a whole minute and rode out the round. However,
\nDvalishvili seemed partially unconscious and it was declared a
\nsubmission loss for the Georgian.<\/p>\n

\u201cBad flashback of my fight with Ricky
\nSimon<\/a>,\u201d Dvalishvili wrote on X. [Phumi
\nNkuta<\/a>] was NOT out before the bell. His opponent held him 2
\nseconds after the bell and that\u2019s when he was slept. Ref should
\nhave broken it up at bell and the fight would have gone to
\ndecision. Again \u2014 case of bad reffing\u2026 costs Phumi a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Bad flashback of my fight with Ricky
\nSimon<\/a>. @PhumiNkuta_MMA<\/a>
\nwas NOT out before the bell. His opponent held him 2 seconds after
\nthe bell and that\u2019s when he was slept. Ref should have broken it up
\nat bell and the fight would have gone to decision. Again- case of
\nbad reffing\u2026 costs\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Merab \u201cThe Machine\u201d Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil)
\nMay 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

Foul Play<\/h2>\n

Sterling also felt that Nkuta was robbed. Sterling blames the
\nreferee for bad officiating while calling out Moraes for foul
\nplay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ref f\u2014ed him,\u201d Sterling wrote. \u201cAnyone that knows how chokes
\nwork, can see him holding the choke for a clear 2 seconds past the
\nbell, and not listening to the ref, which is how he was able to put
\nPhumi to sleep. Foul play on Moraes, from the ref, and all involved
\nnow understanding what they\u2019re looking at. Had he let go, this
\nwouldn\u2019t even be a discussion. Awful!!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

The ref fucked him. Anyone that knows how
\nchokes work, can see him holding the choke for a clear 2 seconds
\npast the bell, and not listening to the ref, which is how he was
\nable to put Phumi to sleep. Foul play on Moraes, from the ref, and
\nall involved now understanding what\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/qIDKyAhvdg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Aljamain
\nSterling<\/a> (@funkmasterMMA)
\nMay 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili believe their training partner, Phumi Nkuta, was robbed on the MVP MMA card. Nkuta (11-1) took on Adriano Moraes (22-6) in a bantamweight outing at Most Valuable Promotions “Rousey vs. Carano” on Saturday at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. While Nkuta picked apart Moraes on the feet, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}