California commission denies Nkuta's appeal over post-bell choke against Moraes

The California State Athletic Commission on Monday denied Phumi Nkuta’s appeal to overturn his technical submission loss to Adriano Moraes at MVP: Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano, ruling there was insufficient evidence to change the official result.

Nkuta had argued that Moraes held a fight-ending choke for approximately 2.15 seconds beyond the final bell in their May 16 flyweight bout, and that referee Herb Dean mishandled the sequence. He contended that he was still conscious when the horn sounded and only went out after time had expired — meaning the fight should have gone to the judges’ scorecards, where he believed he had done enough to win on points.

CSAC executive director Andy Foster acknowledged uncertainty over the timing but said the threshold for overturning a result had not been met. “I bet I’ve watched it 80 times now. We’ve watched it over and over. I’m still unsure when he went unconscious. When we’re not sure about something, it needs to be clear and convincing evidence if this commission is going to flip a fight, just to be very clear,” Foster said.

Nkuta, who travelled from Las Vegas to Sacramento to attend the hearing in person, told the commission he remembers hearing the final horn. The panel did not directly address his arguments or those of his attorney, Lance Spaude, beyond a brief statement from commissioner Dr. AnnaMaria De Mars.

“We ask the officials to make a judgement call under very difficult circumstances,” said De Mars, a former judo champion. “To change somebody’s decision, it has to be very egregious. Is holding something for two seconds, when he’s under just as much pressure as you, a real egregious, deliberate foul? I just don’t see it that way.”

Moraes, a former One Championship flyweight titleholder, retains the official victory. The ruling leaves Nkuta with the lone loss of his professional MMA career standing on his record.