Former Top 15-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight, Chris Curtis, suffered his second straight loss at UFC Vegas 101 this past weekend (Sat., Jan. 11, 2025), getting stopped by Roman Kopylov stopped with just one second left inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas (watch highlights).
And it was a competitive fight.
Both Curtis and his head coach, Eric Nicksick, were furious about the ridiculous stoppage, which was undoubtedly controversial (the first two rounds were split even) and can be dissected in several ways.
And now that Nicksick has had time to digest what happened, he explained the reason(s) he was so mad at UFC Vegas 101 … and it wasn’t about the kick that stopped the fight.
“First and foremost, we need to take accountability on our end,” Nicksick said on his podcast Versus Us. “We should have never been in that position. If you don’t want Mark [Smith] to make that call, then don’t get head kicked. Don’t be in that position or that situation to make Mark make that type of decision. Now, the stoppage was questionable. We’re all agreeing to that. But, it wasn’t the stoppage that I’m mad about.
“It was the fact that prior to the fight, the referee comes in and asks, ‘Do you have any questions or concerns?’” Nicksick added. “Chris Curtis went on and said this: ‘Guy will find ways to stall. What are you going to do if and when he does stall? How are you going to handle that?’ We laid out the gameplan on how we’re going to attack and approach.
“We were told something different, and then the way he handled it in the fight, right?” Nicksick concluded. “That’s what I’m pissed off about. You never get three timeouts in a f—king fight. “So, number one, he spit his mouthpiece out. That wasn’t too bad. All right. Groin strike … Remember, Chris was [applying a lot of pressure], right? You guys hear me yell, ‘Oregon, meaning no-huddle.’ Keep that f—king offense on the field and keep the pressure, right? Yep. Then the eye poke, and I calmly said to Mark, ‘Hey, that is two infractions in a row in this round. Where’s the point?”
Nicksick has had trouble with Smith — a veteran mixed martial arts (MMA) referee — in the past, listing several different instances that Smith either allegedly screwed up or missed.
“Anytime that I see Mark Smith walk in the back and say, ‘I got your fight,’ I think to myself, we’re now fighting two people, not one,” Nicksick explained. “I have felt like that for years. And this runs deeper than yesterday. Bottom line, I think Mark’s a good person — he’s not a bad human being.
“For whatever reason, I feel like every time I see Mark, we’re fighting against two people, not one,” Nicksick added. “That’s my feeling — that’s how I feel when I see that dude come in the back. When I see [Jason] Herzog, I’m like, ‘Great, this dude’s gonna give us a fair shake.’ [Mike] Beltran will give us a fair shake.’ When I see Mark Smith, I’m like, ‘How is this guy gonna find a way to f—ck us over? Somehow, someway.’”
Nicksick is going to try to find out if there is a way to formally request Smith not to ref any of his fighter’s fights in the future because he believes there is too much baggage between the two, especially because Smith used to ref sparring rounds at Xtreme Couture, Nicksick’s gym in Las Vegas.
“I’m going to find all that out [from the commission] 100 percent — it’s just too far gone,” Nicksick said. “I know this guy too well, anecdotally, through all of my experiences with him, and on a personal level of what I’ve seen with other people and other fights. There’s no way that this guy can’t hold a grudge or be biased — there’s just no way.
“I know him too well,” Nicksick finished. “And he fraternizes with other gyms, teams, fighters, coaches and everything else. So, the lines have been blurred. I think he’s an egomaniac. I mean, I’ve never heard a ref ask people to vote for him for the ‘MMA Ref of the Year.”
For complete UFC Vegas 101 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.