X

Holly Holm Appeals UFC 208 Loss to Germaine de Randamie over Punches After Bell

Adam Wells@adamwells1985X.com LogoFeatured ColumnistFebruary 15, 2017

Holly Holm, right, fights Germaine de Randamie, of the Netherlands, during a women's featherweight championship mixed martial arts bout at UFC 208 Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017, in New York. de Randamie won the fight. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Following her loss against Germaine de Randamie at UFC 208 on Saturday, Holly Holm has filed an appeal of the result with the New York State Athletic Commission due to punches de Randamie threw after the end of two rounds.  

Per Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, Holm's attorneys filed the appeal asking the commission to review referee Todd Anderson for not deducting "one or more points from Germaine de Randamie following her repeated strikes thrown after the horn sounded to end Rounds 2 and 3."

When the bell sounded signaling the end of the five-minute round in Rounds 2 and 3, Anderson did not intervene either time, and de Randamie landed multiple punches that did damage to Holm. At the end of the second round, in particular, de Randamie tagged Holm with a huge right hand that came late. 

In the complaint, Holm's camp wants the commission to "review referee Anderson's failure to assess a foul and render a decision regarding a point deduction following Round 2, and failure to assess a foul and a point deduction following Round 3, and determine an appropriate result."

Holm lasted all five rounds before the judges awarded de Randamie a unanimous-decision victory, which made her the first-ever UFC women's featherweight champion. 

Commissions rarely overturn final decisions, though it has happened in the past. Last fall, Invicta FC's Tonya Evinger appealed a submission loss against Yana Kunitskaya on the grounds referee Mike England instructed her to change positions while in the submission hold. The Missouri Office of Athletics overturned the result to a no-contest and reinstated Evinger as the Invicta FC women's bantamweight champion. 

The Holm-de Randamie bout was close on the scorecards, with de Randamie getting scores of 48-47 from each of the three judges. If the commission rules in Holm's favor, it will have to decide whether she should be declared the winner or if the result gets deemed a no-contest to set up a possible rematch.