Alex Oliveira Still Waiting On Response To Appeal For UFC 207 No Contest

As we previously reported, Alex Oliveira’s representative Alex Davis said that the fighter planned to appeal his UFC 207 no contest against Tim Means. The appeal was filed on January 31 and when he spoke to MMA Junkie, Davis said that Oliveira is still waiting on a reply from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which oversaw the December 30 event in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. NSAC Executive Director Bob Bennett has yet to comment on the appeal or if he even received it.

He wrote in an email: “Will be happy to advise you about the appeal in the future. Thank you for your interest and have a great day.”

The fight ended at 3:33 after Means hit Oliveira with an illegal knee to the head, which meant Oliveira couldn’t compete. Instead of being ruled a disqualification, which is what happens when an intentional illegal move is hit before the end of the second round and stops a fighter from continuing, it was ruled a no contest. Means admitted he used a knee on purpose because he thought they were legal in a new version of the Unified Rules from this past year. Oliveira’s knee was on the mat, which meant his head was an illegal place to deliver the knee. Davis wants the result changed to a win by DQ.

NSAC rules state that the referee is the one in charge of the fight and the commission can only interfere if there is an error, collusion or “misapplication of the rules.”

In his appeal, Davis wrote: “I would like to ask the NSAC to review the result of the fight between Alex “ Cowboy” Oliveira and Tim Means that happened on Dec 30 of 2016 at the UFC 207 in Las Vegas. The fight was called a No Contest. From our perspective this is in error. The fight was stopped due to illegal knees to a downed opponent, in this case Tim Means on Alex Oliveira. These were intentional, as Tim himself admitted publicly in various interviews. In this case, and according to our understanding of the rules, Tim should have been disqualified, and the win should have been awarded to Alex Oliveira. Alex and I hope that the NSAC will agree to our perspective, and act to correct. We believe that these rules are in place for everyone to obey and follow, in the name of safety and fairness in our sport.“