Jake Matthews and his team will be filing an appeal following his controversial third-round submission loss to Neil Magny at UFC Perth.
Late in the first round, Matthews sunk in a guillotine choke, and with one second left, the ref stopped the fight. However, Magny popped right back up and protested, which led to the ref ruling he never actually stopped the fight, and that the bout would continue. Matthews had a solid second round, but Magny rallied and submitted the Aussie in the third round for a comeback win, which resulted in plenty of controversy.
Following the controversial loss, Matthews and his team are set to appeal the result, citing the ref stopping the bout, his management team confirmed to BJPENN.com.
“Yes, we will be appealing,” Matthews’ management sent in an e-mail to BJPENN.com.
The hope is that the fight will get overturned to a No Contest. Matthews’ management team feels that the fight shouldn’t have restarted after the ref stopped it.
Neil Magny reacts to controversial win over Jake Matthews
After a tough first two rounds, Neil Magny rallied to score a thrilling submission win over Jake Matthews at UFC Perth.
Following the win, he spoke to Paul Felder in the Octagon and said he knew he had to keep on fighting.
“It felt great,” Magny said after the win. “I’m truly fortunate and blessed to be able to do this. I was actually hunting that power bomb… Always keep fighting, always keep pressing forward.”
With the loss, Jake Matthews fell to 22-8 and had his three-fight losing streak snapped. Before the controversial loss, Matthews had a submission win over Chidi Njokuani, a decision win over Francisco Prado, and a decision win over Phil Rowe. Matthews is now 15-8 in the UFC.
Neil Magny, meanwhile, improved to 31-13 as a pro and 24-12 in the UFC. The veteran is now on a two-fight winning streak after scoring a TKO win over Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos last time out.