Was it a tap or not? Well obviously New Jersey’s commission felt it suitable enough to turn Fabricio Werdum’s loss to Renan Ferreira into a no contest.
The former UFC heavyweight champion had a triangle choke on Ferreira in the opening round of his PFL main event, but Ferreira got out of it and turned his top position into a spot for a brutal ground-and-pound knockout. Werdum was adamant that Ferreira had tapped, and if on the live broadcast there would be nothing to suggest such a thing, the replay did raise some level of doubt.
Before his finish against Fabricio Werdum, Renan Ferreira appeared to tap Werdum twice on the shoulder. #2021PFL3 pic.twitter.com/1M5ktz4xX4
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) May 7, 2021
Well in a rarity, the appeal by Team Werdum was successful and that L has been wiped from Fabricio’s record by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, per ESPN’s Marc Raimondi and Werdum’s manager Ali Abdelaziz.
The PFL fight between Fabricio Werdum and Renan Ferreira from last Thursday night has been overturned to a no contest by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. Story coming to @espnmma.
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) May 10, 2021
I want to thank the New Jersey Athletic Commission, Mr. Nick Lembo who worked all weekend on over turning Fabricio Werdum’s decision to a NO Contest from his last week at PFL. I also want to thank PFL for quickly providing all of the necessary evidence.
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) May 10, 2021
Under PFL rules, a no contest results in both fighters getting one point. So instead of Ferreira getting the maximum 6 points from a first-round finish, he loses five points and Werdum gets on the board. It remains to be seen whether or not PFL will run this wild fight back.
You do not often get results overturned due to perceived referee error so it’s a minor victory for Werdum in that sense. Although you could argue that it may as well just be a Werdum win outright instead of a no contest. Either Ferreira tapped and Werdum should’ve won or he didn’t tap and Ferreira’s win should be upheld.
We will update this post with any new information, including the explanation on why it was an NC and not a Werdum submission victory.
About the author
