UFC 123: Michigan Bureau of Commercial Services Is Reviewing The Falcao Vs. Harris Short Round(video)

Added on Nov 23, 2010 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

I was covering a local amateur card on the south side of Chicago this past Saturday night, and i was forced to avoid the Internet all night-and watch the replay of UFC 123 at midnight. I told all of my friends who I knew were watching to not give me any spoilers. Right before I sat down, I received an instant message from an astute friend, and the message said “Not a spoiler, watch the clock in the Falcao fight-end round 1.”

The Falcao vs Harris fight comes on, and i start peeking down at the clock. 4 minutes goes by, and I’m almost more focused on the clock then the fight. Falcao slips the rear naked choke in with about 15 seconds left in the fight, and Harris is starting to turn beet red. I’m staring at the clock, and it disappears at 8 seconds left, and 2 seconds go by when the horn goes off. Harris saved by the bell. I know the on screen clock isn’t the official cage time, and I can see being a second or so off when I’m timing rounds while I’m watching a fight live.

It was like four o’clock in the morning when I tried to time the round, and I had come up with 5 missing seconds. I saw a report on Middle Easy, from a guy in Brazil who timed the round with fight time. Fight Time is a popular round time application, that many fighters use in the gym to time rounds, and some corners use it at fights. The video below is the entire round being timed, and you will see they come up with 7 extra seconds. (Updated: The video has been removed by Zuffa on youtube, this happens to every video showing footage of UFC fights. Below is now a video, where the clock dissapears at 8 seconds, and soon the bell goes off. You can time it yourself with a stop watch.)

If you watch the UFC fights often, you will notice that they always delete the clock at the end of the round, so we aren’t saying its a conspiracy. However, it is officially under review. Stephen Gobbo, Director of Legal Affairs for the Michigan Bureau of Commercial Services, the agency that oversees the state’s mixed martial arts regulation, told MMAWeekly on Tuesday that he was aware of the situation and confirmed that the incident was under review. He did not have a time line for the investigation.

Falcao won the round, and clearly won the fight, but it did go to a decision. Dana White even commented that someone needed to tell Falcao “This is the ultimate fighting championship, not the Ultimate Starring Contest.” He is referring to the third round where it appeared that he had won fight, and was trying to coast to a decision win.

UFC President Dana White told MMAJunkie “It’s crazy that the round ended early while Gerald was in that nasty choke. And Gerald Harris at the end of that first round was out if the timekeeper [expletive] it up by seven seconds. Another half of a second and that dude was asleep. But am I shocked that someone screwed up? No. Every event, there’s something. The only thing you can do is just bum out and say, ‘It happened again.’ It’s unbelievable.”

If Falcao had finished the submission, he may have been considered for the $80,000 UFC 123 Submission of the Night bonus, but there is no conclusive way of knowing whether or not he would have finished. Even with 6 seconds, one would think he could have done it, but you just can’t prove it. More then likely, no action will be taken what so ever.