Las Vegas — Middleweights Roman Kopylov and Chris Curtis earned Fight of the Night at UFC Vegas 101, but despite the thrilling three rounds that played out, talk afterward was all about the stoppage.
With seconds to go, Kopylov cracked Curtis with a head kick. Wobbled, Curtis dropped to one knee, and Kopylov walked off, though Curtis never actually went all the way down. The ref, however, waved off the fight, with just one second remaining.
Curtis was incensed, but Kopylov still had the finish. That makes the Russian the first man to stop Curtis on the feet in the UFC.
“I think that everyone was fair, the referee did his job. I think that kick was enough, he fell to the canvas, there was no reason to finish him,” Kopylov (14-3) said following the fight, asked about the finish. “I think he did his job.”
Kopylov later revealed what was briefly said between the two following the bout, and suggested that Curtis was upset about something besides being finished.
“I came up to him and I said ‘hey, listen, this is just sport,’ and my translator Sergei told me, he said that ‘it’s not just sports, it’s my life.’ But from what I understand, it wasn’t not necessarily from the stoppage that he was upset, there was something going on with his coach. There was something between him and his coach, that’s why the commotion happened.”
Asked if Curtis had been arguing with his coach [Eric Nicksick], Kopylov said “yes, from what I understand, there was someone in the corner that was upset with what happened, and Chris was responding back to that. I don’t think there was an issue with the stoppage and the referee.”
Curtis’s own actions following the fight might contradict that, as he could be seen refusing to let the ref touch him or hold his hand while the outcome was announced. Regardless as to the reason, the fight will have a footnote too it over the stoppage coming early, at least for those that side with Curtis.
Roman Koplov isn’t concerned with the fight being “tainted,” however, he told Cageside Press.
“No, I think everything was according to the rules. I got him, he fell. And technically I could have jumped on him and finished him, but I didn’t want to do that, didn’t want to hurt him. There was no reason for me to give him more damage,” he suggested. However, he added, “if there’s questions about this fight, happy to rematch.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 101 post-fight press conference with Roman Kopylov above.