In The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale bout between Jon Jones and Matt Hamill, referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped their fight due to illegal elbow strikes that landed on the head of Matt Hamill while he was being mounted. Mazzagatti stopped the fight temporarily and used the instant replay method to review the strikes. After looking over the replay, Mazzagatti deducted one point from Jones and asked Hamill if he was able to continue fighting. This is where the miscommunication comes in because Hamill said he could not continue…not because of the elbow strikes, but because Hamill dislocated his shoulder. Jones’ training camp has decided to protest the bout in a goal to convert the loss into a no contest (NC).
From Jon Jones’ camp:
“Let’s be clear, Jon is not ‘unhappy’ he feels as all things happen for a reason. We are protesting the L because we felt that Jon’s opponent could not effectively communicate why he could not continue. The rules state that an intentional foul and that the fighter cannot continue based on injury sustained from the foul. Hamill could not continue due to a broken shoulder. Jon should have been deducted a point for the accidental illegal blow. Matt should have been treated like we treat the Brazilians and given 5 minutes to regroup and offered a translator so the ref could make the right call and understand Matt could not continue due to his shoulder injury not the blow. This should be a NC for both fighters but not a loss. Hamill continued with an injured Shoulder and only complained once the action was stopped (warrior) but the fight was stopped based on the shoulder injury in our opinion.”
From Matt Hamill:
“I know it looked bad Saturday night but it looked a lot worse than it was. Aside from a few stitches in my nose and a sore shoulder I feel fine. I give all the credit to Jon Jones. He caught me by surprise with an awesome trip and I dislocated my shoulder when we hit the ground. I knew it was probably over at that point but I will die before I tap so I did the best I could under the circumstances. We train to wind up in bad positions and it paid off because I felt I was still able to defend even though I knew I couldn’t get up. Jon’s young and full of so much talent. Aside from making a mistake he did his job and he did it well. He definitely didn’t lose this fight and I definitely didn’t win, but I guess the rules are there for a reason. It is what it is … I wish Jon all the best and I’d like to thank him for the professional and respectful way he has handled himself. I felt bad for him since a simple mistake caused him to loose a win bonus but as I know first hand, Dana, Lorenzo and the rest of the UFC take great care of their fighters. I’m sure Jon received a win bonus and more. As for me, you know I’ll be back. Fighting in the UFC is my job and I’ll be back to work very soon.”
