Silva Plans Appeal After ‘Bizarre’ Atlantic City Loss

Silva feels like the referee and commission sided unfairly with Weidman after a series of eyepokes led to his defeat in their New Jersey showdown.

Bruno Silva is looking to have the outcome of his fight against Chris Weidman changed … again.

Weidman was initially awarded a third round TKO victory over Silva in their UFC Atlantic City showdown. But when officials reviewed the finishing flurry, it was hard to ignore two (count em, two!) eye pokes that Weidman delivered, leading to Silva’s collapse onto the canvas.

So the result was changed: the fight was sent to the scorecards, with Weidman winning a 30-27×3 unanimous technical decision.

Still not okay according to Bruno Silva, who says he’ll be filing an appeal with the New Jersey commission.

“The referee was bizarre,” Silva said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “He f—ed up, and then f—ed up on top of that. The least they could do is a no-contest. No way. He put his finger inside my eye!”

“We think it’s hard for Chris Weidman to accept a rematch, but the no-contest would be fair. Let’s see what the UFC does. I just want things done the right way, the fair way. I went there and fought and you didn’t see any malice from my part.”

Silva still doesn’t understand why the fight wasn’t ruled a no contest.

“I thought they were going to rule it a no contest,” he said. “But then he said it was a unanimous win. I didn’t understand it. He poked me in the eye in the second round, poked me in the third, and it’s still an unanimous decision win for him?”

While Silva didn’t say Weidman poked him on purpose, he did accuse “The All American” of fighting with his fingers outstretched, which is against the rules on its own.

“Chris Weidman acted in bad faith,” Silva claimed. “It’s said [by the referee] at the locker room that you can’t fight with your fingers pointing straight, it should be either up or with your hands closed. He spent the entire fight with his fingers pointing at my face, and still celebrated as if he had knocked me out.”

Silva may have a hard time winning his case. He’ll have to go through the New Jersey commission, which is … exactly the people who handled the decision to Weidman on fight night. The chances of them deciding to overrule their call (which in itself was already overruling their initial call) is low.

Which is too bad, because Bruno Silva definitely got done dirty in that fight.