{"id":801089,"date":"2026-07-14T10:21:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/801089\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:21:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:21:31","slug":"csac-upholds-herb-deans-controversial-mvp-mma-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/801089\/","title":{"rendered":"CSAC Upholds Herb Dean\u2019s Controversial MVP MMA Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly two months ago (Sat., May 16, 2026), top Flyweight prospect Phumi Nkuta suffered the first loss of his professional career at MVP MMA 1<\/a> after former ONE Championship titleholder Adriano Moraes put him to sleep in the final seconds of their preliminary-card clash inside Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It was extremely controversial.<\/p>\n

Moraes locked in a rear-naked choke late in the third round, but the finish came right as the final horn sounded. To make matters even messier, the choke appeared to be held after the bell, leading veteran referee Herb Dean to request an instant replay review because of the controversial timing.<\/p>\n

After reviewing the sequence that night, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) ultimately ruled that Moraes secured the technical submission with one second remaining in the fight.<\/p>\n

A day after the event, Nkuta\u2019s team filed an appeal with CSAC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today (Mon., July 13, 2026), the decision came through.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe watched this replay,\u201d CSAC executive director Andy Foster said, h\/t MMA Junkie<\/a>. \u201cI bet I\u2019ve watched it 80 times now. We\u2019ve watched it over and over. I\u2019m still unsure when he went unconscious. When we\u2019re 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. I can\u2019t tell you in any definitive way, at what point are we flipping the fight? What I can tell you is Mr. Nkuta would\u2019ve won that fight, had he not been choked. I can tell you that. That was going to happen. The question for the commissioners is, and you can watch the tape and get your own opinion, is at what point was he unconscious?\u201d<\/p>\n

Foster also addressed whether Moraes should have been penalized for holding onto the choke after the horn.\u201cAnother point is, do you think Herb should\u2019ve charged him with a foul for holding it?\u201d Foster said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard the word, \u20182.15 seconds long.\u2019 I wasn\u2019t sure if it was that long, but let\u2019s assume that it was 2.15 seconds. I don\u2019t know if it was that long, but let\u2019s make it that because that\u2019s what I was told. I\u2019ve seen fights like this, and I know you all have as well, where it happens quite frequently.
\u201cThe question is up for the commissioners, but my recommendation is we have to maintain what the referee called that night,\u201d Foster continued. \u201cWe went to replay. We watched it many times that night and we still couldn\u2019t determine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nkuta, who was in Sacramento to attend Monday\u2019s hearing in person, said he heard the bell and believes Moraes committed a foul by refusing to release the choke when Dean tried to intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see on the film as well, my eyes are squinting, my eyes are moving when the bell sounds,\u201d Nkuta said. \u201cFrom my perspective, I hear the bell. Obviously, it\u2019s for you guys and the commission to decide. I think the one clear thing here is that Moraes did hold that choke for the extended amount of time. For anyone who has grappled before at a high level, or at any juncture, knows when you\u2019ve held a choke in for a requisite amount of time, every second counts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got the choke in in nine seconds,\u201d Nkuta continued. \u201cWe\u2019re already nine seconds in and Herb gets his hands on him. While Herb is prying his hands, he\u2019s still holding the choke. Now, if he\u2019d let go immediately, we\u2019d have a clearer distinction of, \u2018OK, he was unconscious.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Nkuta then made his position very clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoraes, in my opinion, clearly committed a foul,\u201d Nkuta said. \u201cHerb gets on him, tries to rip his hands off, and he continues to choke. From the back, they say, \u2018Hold on to whatever and keep fighting until I stop it.\u2019 Herb did try to stop it, and Moraes still continued to hold the choke. So from that perspective as well, I just kind of look at it as he got away with one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, even with Nkuta\u2019s argument, CSAC upheld the original result, and his appeal was denied.<\/p>\n

The defeat at MVP MMA 1 snapped Nkuta\u2019s impressive 11-fight win streak, a run that saw him capture championships in A1 Combat, Peak Fighting Championship and CFFC.<\/p>\n

It is also worth pointing out that Dean has been under fire since the controversial Moraes-Nkuta finish.<\/p>\n

The biggest criticism has come from former UFC two-division champion Alex Pereira, who has gone scorched earth on Dean over back-of-the-head shots<\/a> he said he received against Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UFC Featherweight Andre Fili also complained that he was hit in the back of the head<\/a> in his latest loss and believes Dean should have done something about it.<\/p>\n

So, while Nkuta\u2019s appeal is officially dead, the conversation around Dean\u2019s recent refereeing is not going anywhere.<\/p>\n

And this decision probably will not quiet it down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly two months ago (Sat., May 16, 2026), top Flyweight prospect Phumi Nkuta suffered the first loss of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,197642,82],"class_list":["post-801089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-ronda-rousey-vs-gina-carano-netflix-news-hub","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}