{"id":39269,"date":"2026-07-14T06:33:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Controversial-MMA-finish-gets-a-ruling-from-California-officials-201893"},"modified":"2026-07-14T06:33:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:33:52","slug":"controversial-mma-finish-gets-a-ruling-from-california-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/controversial-mma-finish-gets-a-ruling-from-california-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial MMA finish gets a ruling from California officials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Phumi
\nNkuta<\/a>‘s bid to overturn the lone loss of his professional
\ncareer did not go in his favor.<\/p>\n

The California State Athletic Commission on Monday denied Nkuta’s
\nappeal to overturn his technical submission defeat against Adriano
\nMoraes<\/a> at
\nMVP<\/a>: Ronda
\nRousey<\/a> vs. Gina Carano<\/a>.
\nNkuta argued that Moraes held a fight-ending choke beyond the final
\nhorn and that referee Herb Dean<\/a>
\nmishandled the sequence.<\/p>\n

\n

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

However, the commission ruled there was insufficient evidence to
\nchange the official result.<\/p>\n

California State Athletic Commission denies Phumi Nkuta appeal
\nafter Adriano Moraes fight<\/h2>\n

On May 16, Nkuta and Moraes clashed in a flyweight bout on the main
\ncard of MVP\u2019s Rousey vs. Carano-headlined event. Near the end of the fight, Moraes had Nkuta in a choke. As the
\nfinal bell rang, the former held on to the choke for what Nkuta
\nclaims was around 2.15 seconds after the horn. The official result
\nwas a technical submission victory for the former One
\nChampionship<\/a> titleholder.<\/p>\n

Nkuta then filed an appeal to overturn the loss, claiming that he
\nwas still conscious when the final bell rang, but went out after
\ntime had expired because Moraes held the choke. He further argued
\nthat the fight should have gone to the judges\u2019 scorecards, where
\nNkuta believes he did enough to secure a decision victory.<\/p>\n

CSAC executive director Andy Foster<\/a>
\ndid not deny that the choke was held for longer than it was
\nnecessary, but said that there was no definitive evidence that
\nNkuta was not unconscious at the bell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bet I’ve watched it 80 times now. We’ve watched it over and
\nover. I’m still unsure when he went unconscious. When we’re not
\nsure about something, it needs to be clear and convincing evidence
\nif this commission is going to flip a fight, just to be very
\nclear,\u201d Foster said of the judgement (via MMA Junkie<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Nkuta, who traveled from Las Vegas to Sacramento to attend Monday’s
\nhearing in person, said that he remembers hearing the final horn.
\nThe commission did not respond directly to these arguments from
\nNkuta and his attorney, Lance Spaude, apart from a brief comment by
\ncommissioner Dr. AnnaMaria De Mars, a former judo champion and the
\nmother of Ronda Rousey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask the officials to make a judgement call under very difficult
\ncircumstances,\u201d Dr. De Mars said. \u201cYou’re there. There are millions
\nof people watching you. To change somebody’s decision, it has to be
\nvery egregious. I’m sitting here thinking about choking people and
\nhow fast your reaction time is. Is holding something for two
\nseconds, when he’s under just as much pressure as you, a real
\negregious, deliberate foul? I just don’t see it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

The CSAC has denied Phumi
\nNkuta<\/a>\u2019s appeal that Herb Dean<\/a>
\nmishandled the end of his bout vs. Adriano
\nMoraes<\/a> on
\n#RouseyCarano<\/a>. The result stands pic.twitter.com\/XiuJm1CMA4<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Nolan King (@mma_kings)
\nJuly 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Phumi Nkuta‘s bid to overturn the lone loss of his professional career did not go in his favor. The California State Athletic Commission on Monday denied Nkuta’s appeal to overturn his technical submission defeat against Adriano Moraes at MVP: Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano. Nkuta argued that Moraes held a fight-ending choke beyond the final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39269","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\/39269","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=39269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}