It isn't very often that a fighter has the opportunity to win a fight based on a rule break done by his opponent, most of the time it won't be a win for them, it will be determined a no-contest rather than a win or loss, but the end result can be beneficial for that fighter if they feel as though they are not doing as well as they would like to be doing in that fight, or even worse, if they realize that their opponent has got the better of them and they flop... which is what Rodolfo Bellato did at the UFC Fight Night over the weekend.
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There's going to be a series of pictures here, pay attention.
The above is the most important one because that is Rodolfo moments after getting struck with an upkick from Paul Craig.
He is complaining to the ref about the illegal upkick because the rules go that if a guy has a knee to the ground, he is considered a "grounded opponent" and you cannot kick them to the head. Here is that same situation about a quarter of a second later.
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Rodolfo went from being so aware of his surroundings that he knows the referee position and what just happened enough to clearly complain about what just happened to "lights out." As someone who has been concussed in fighting in the past and doesn't even remember being removed from the arena I was fighting in I can tell you, that is not what getting knocked out works like.
Rodolfo remained in this position for a number of seconds and then did this pathetic crawl to the cage wall and when approached by the referee for questioning he grappled with the ref for a bit but in a half-assed way. Then he just sat there with a black stare into the distance for a while, which is something that someone who gets knocked out will actually do.
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Here is a great breakdown of all of what happened by a guy that is more recently involved in participating in fighting than I am but all of what he says is spot on.
I've been KO'd, I've KO'd other people, I know what it is like on both sides: None of it functions in the way that the show that Rodolfo Bellato put on after that illegal upkick tries to convey.
Bellato did NOT get the DQ win that he was hoping for and this is a very good thing. The bad news for him is that MMA fans remember stuff like this and they are not going to forgive him for this. Ajamain Sterling, who basically everyone hates, won a UFC belt by appearing to flop in the octagon and even though he defended that belt several times including against the person that is was awarded to him with his flop, the fans still never appreciated him or forgave him for that. There is already a mass appeal to have Bellato removed from the UFC roster and while Dana White has been a bit quiet about this, you can be guaranteed that he doesn't smile upon a result like this and Bellato's future in the UFC is going to be really tough for the Brazilian to work out.
Now thins brings us to kicks on a downed opponent and whether or not they should be illegal. Initially, they were made illegal because of so-called "soccer kicks" where someone would kick their downed opponent in the head when they were prone or already potentially knocked out. This can kill a person and yes, that should be illegal. But in the case of when one person is on the ground in a defensive stance with the aggressor kneeling in front of them, the person who is kneeling is approaching this situation in that way specifically BECAUSE they know their opponent is not allowed to kick them. Otherwise, they would be forced to "dive in" with a bit of unknown about what is going to happen afterwards. The same can be said for fighters who put one knee down in order to avoid head strikes from who they are fighting. Once again we will reference Sterling.
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Petr Yan's knee to the face was significantly more egregious than the upkick between Paul and Bellato but the question remains "why is one guy waiting and resting on one knee in the first place?" Well, this gives them time to evaluate getting back to their feet in the safest way possible and give them a bit of an advantage because the only thing their opponent can do is rush in with fists and if they do that the better wrestler - which would have been Sterling in this case - can put them back on the ground instead of standing up where the fight is in favor of the better striker - which in that fight was Petr Yan.
So it's a coward's move to do this. I don't really know from experience because when I was fighting, you were allowed to kick downed opponents and we did exactly that.
In my mind the rules need to be redefined so that using your legs on a "downed" opponent applies to if they are face-down and you are not - which would be perfectly understandable. In the meantime though with the rules being what they currently are, fighters are using this rule to gain a sometimes unfair advantage rather than actually needing to be in that position.
The really silly thing for Roberto Bellato is that at that point in the fight where he decided to flop (and I do believe it WAS a flop) he was winning on the scorecards and controlling the pace of the match. As many commentators have said "Roberto managed to snatch a no contest from the jaws of victory."
No matter what the UFC decides to do about this, Roberto has sealed his fate as far as his MMA future is concerned. Even the notion that someone was faking is enough, even rumors of cheating is sufficient, the fans are never going to get behind this guy no matter what he does from this point forward.