Ion Cutelaba has confirmed his controversial stoppage by Magomed Ankalaev at UFC Fight Night 169 is being reviewed - saying 'I will have to be hit by a train or lightning to knock me out'.
The ending of Saturday's bout has been widely criticised, with fans and fighters alike branding referee Kevin MacDonald's decision 'the worst ever seen in MMA'.
MacDonald stopped the clash of the light-heavyweights within 40 seconds after a rapid opening, and Cutelaba was visibly furious when the call was made.
Though he had taken some kicks to the head and was wobbling on his feet, many onlookers believe the Moldovan was simply feigning injury to draw Ankalaev in.
The ref, however, decided the bout should be stopped after one wild swinging punch from Cutelaba, who immediately confronted MacDonald and shouted in his face.
Legendary MMA ref John McCarthy even said MacDonald is 'lucky he wasn't clocked' by Cutelaba given his rash decision.
You can watch the dramatic incident, below…
Cutelaba announced after the fight he would be appealing the stoppage to Virginia’s Boxing, Martial Arts, and Professional Wrestling Advisory Board, branding the decision 'one of the worst calls in UFC history' in a statement on Instagram.
And he posted a new message on the social media platform to confirm the commission are reviewing the fight and MacDonald's stoppage.
"I will have to be hit by a train to or lightning to knock me out," wrote Cutelaba. "Do not come at me with these weak and very visible shots that even NASA can see them from the satellite.
"Everyone beside the referee seen (sic) that I was defending very well and counterattacked every shot. My gameplan was very good, my acting as everyone could see it fouled (sic) even the referee.
"Ankalaev is not to blame for anything, but how I told him after the early stoppage he was very lucky and should thank the referee.
"Now the Virginia athletic commission is checking all the facts and recordings and soon enough we will have a decision."
In McCarthy's criticism of MacDonald's decision, he made it clear he thought the stoppage was a 'horrible' call.
"If you are the referee," began McCarthy, "you see this guy starting to do this thing [jerk around], I don’t look at this [points to head], I look to see how is his base [his feet]?
“Because that’s going to tell me.
“I’m going to look and say, ‘that didn’t look like it should have hurt you. It could’ve – I’m not saying it can’t – but it didn’t look like it should’.
“So instead of doing this, where I go to what we call ‘the micro’ – I start to look at his face – I step back and look at ‘the macro’. I look at the entire package. And I look at the base of the fighter.
“That tells me everything. It tells me: look at how solid his base is. He’s not hurt. You do not have a solid base when you are hurt.”
“You’ve got to let this guy [Cutelaba] go, because he’s throwing back! He’s fighting! He never hit the f***ing ground, he never fell into the f***ing fence, he never did any stanky-leg thing.
Conor McGregor shows his strength as he works out in the gym“He f***ing wiggled his upper body!
“Guys wiggle their f***ing upper body all the time. What are you watching! And then you stop the fight?
“And as you said, he’s lucky he didn’t get clocked. Because you could see immediately Ion was fine. He’s like, ‘what are you!?’
“He’s trying to lull this guy in, he’s taking shots, I’m not saying he’s not – the right hand that started it, started the concern, touched him – but I didn’t think it really hurt him.
“He started to do his little thing [jerking around]. You could see that it froze him for a second, just that half-a-second. So he felt it.
“But watch his base – it’s fine.”
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