Sonnen's coach plans to appeal loss to Silva

By Steve Marrocco, MMAJunkie.com

Chael Sonnen's coach Scott McQuarry today told MMAjunkie.com that Anderson Silva's second-round TKO of Sonnen is "an injustice" and he plans to appeal the bout's official result.

"Obviously, there were minor infractions of grabbing shorts and greasing himself up," McQuarry said. "But the knee to the face ... I've looked at it from numerous angles. I can see where it hit his face. It did slide down to his chest. But that should be considered a no-contest.

"What I'm looking for is a rematch."

Silva vs. Sonnen II headlined UFC 148, which took place this past Saturday at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and aired live on pay-per-view.

McQuarry said he's contacted Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer to find out the steps for an appeal and has yet to hear back.

"Anybody can file an appeal, but as you know, the referee's decision is final," Kizer told MMAjunkie.com while on his way to the 2012 UFC Fighters Summit to discuss therapeutic-use exemptions. "He's the sole determiner that the knee was a lawful strike, and then he stopped the fight thereafter after the additional strikes. I don't know what the legal basis would be."

Sonnen manager Mike Roberts said he had no knowledge of a pending appeal and said he thought "somebody is making it up."

Silva's camp, meanwhile, believes Sonnen's coaches are focused on the wrong thing.

"I should appeal his coaching staff, and maybe his coaching staff should do a better job of coaching their athlete," Silva's manager, Ed Soares, today said. "Instead of focusing on appealing something so little, maybe he should attend an Anderson Silva seminar or something."

An attempt to reach Sonnen, who is currently at the summit, was unsuccessful. McQuarry said he informed the fighter of his plans on Sunday and sent him a picture of the knee that set the fight's end in motion.

"His response to me specifically was, 'Yeah, I knew that all along. I bit my tongue,'" McQuarry said. "And he had told me after the fight that it was a knee to the face."

McQuarry said two NSAC athletic inspectors also informed him post-fight that the knee was illegal.

"Going into the cage after the fight, I was accompanied by two representatives of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and they both turned to me and said, 'You realize that was an illegal knee,'" he said. "It's pretty obvious to me."

Kizer, however, said he and NSAC chairman Raymond "Skip" Avansino approached the fighter backstage at his post-fight doctor's examination, and Sonnen did not indicate he wanted to appeal.

Sonnen tumbled to the mat after missing a spinning backfist, and Silva fired off the knee in question before Sonnen returned to his feet and was felled by more punches that prompted referee Yves Lavigne to wave off the bout at the 1:55 mark of the second round. The win was Silva's 10th consecutive title defense and 15th overall victory inside the octagon.

Suspicion over the knee's legality was quelled by replays of the stoppage inside the arena, though it has lingered online as some have questioned whether Silva used the fence for leverage in throwing the strike. (Kizer clarified that a fighter is not allowed to use the cage for leverage in throwing a knee to the body of a downed opponent, but stressed that in the case of this past Saturday, it was at Lavigne's discretion to rule whether Silva's strike was legal.)

Silva grabbed Sonnen's shorts at several points, and at one point, his hand was batted away by Lavigne. However, he was not deducted a point. (McQuarry noted that Sonnen once grabbed Silva's shorts, as well.) Immediately prior to the fight, cameras also spotted the champ wiping his arms and torso after receiving Vaseline from a cageside cutman, though Lavigne wiped the fighter down before the opening bell.

"(UFC executive) Lorenzo (Fertitta) came to me and said, 'Did you see that?' I said, 'Lorenzo, he does that every damn fight,'" Kizer said. "And Yves was ready for that and took care of it."

Regardless, McQuary wants the commission to look into it further.

"It was pretty evident to me that there was intent on Anderson's part to do an illegal knee, and I think he was trying to get disqualified still," McQuary said. "I think Anderson's hope the whole time was that he would do an illegal thing, he would get disqualified, and then I don't know what his plan was after that.

"But to me, it was extremely blatant, and it was ignored by the referee and everybody else and swept under the rug. And to add insult to injury, (UFC president) Dana White gives the 'Knockout of the Night' (bonus) to Anderson.

"I want to expedite this. I'm normally pretty quiet about this type of stuff, but when you see an injustice to this extreme and there's so much on the line, I feel compelled to say something. Where it goes, I don't know. To me, best-case scenario is we would get ruled a no-contest and we could have a rematch."

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