A few weeks ago Kensington native Eddie Alvarez was fighting on TNT for Asian mixed martial arts promotion ONE Championship. It was the company’s American television debut, and they put a couple of U.S.- born fighters at the top of the card to draw interest over here.

This bout was a disaster, with Alvarez disqualified in the first round for what the referee deemed to be illegal blows landing to the back of opponent Iuri Lapicus’ head. Alvarez was distraught after the fight, but believed the DQ was unfair and asked for the result to be overturned.

Here’s a replay of what happened:

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1379981926279221250?s=20

Kind of a weird situation, because Lapicus had his head turned, Alvarez had his legs locked, and was sort of throwing those punches without a clear vision of where they were landing. You’re allowed to hit a guy on the ear, but not the back of the head and neck area, because there’s a risk of serious injury.


Lapicus is out for 90 days at doctors’ orders, but Alvarez is cleared to compete again immediately, so now he’ll be appearing on TNT next Wednesday to fight a guy named Ok Rae Yoon, who beat Marat Gafurov:

The Lapicus fight goes on Eddie’s record as a DQ loss, but ONE Championship is currently having a panel look over the tape to determine whether it should be overturned. In that case, it would go down as “no contest,” and the loss would be stricken from Eddie’s record. Lapicus, somewhat ironically, is credited for a win on his record and improved to 15-1, even though he had swelling and needed to be taken to the hospital for a CAT scan.

Here’s promotion CEO Chatri Sityodtong in a recent interview giving his take on the matter and explaining how the review process is going to happen:

Weird situation. The good thing is that Alvarez gets to fight again right away. And Lapicus seems to be doing alright despite the scare.