N.Y. commission approves use of instant replay for MMA ahead of UFC 217

The New York State Athletic Commission has taken precautions to avoid a repeat of the UFC 210 debacle.

Presiding referees are now permitted to consult instant replay to review a fight-ending sequence and render the correct verdict for bouts sanctioned by the NYSAC, Newsday's Mark La Monica reported Thursday. According to Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting, the policy was voted in on Oct. 4.

Per the newly adopted policy, replay may only be consulted in the time between a stoppage and the announcement of the official decision, and while in-cage referees are free to consult their cage-side colleagues, only the former may view the replay and render a verdict. A call for instant replay also signals the end of a fight, La Monica reports.

The development comes just over a week before Madison Square Garden hosts a star-studded UFC 217, and six months after referee Dan Miragliotta resorted to instant replay in a controversial middleweight bout between Chris Weidman and Gegard Mousasi at UFC 210 in Buffalo - one NYSAC executive director Kim Sumbler deemed a catalyst for the new policy when speaking to Raimondi on Friday.

Weidman appeared to have been in a grounded stance as Mousasi threw a pair of knees to his head - the stance rendering the blows illegal and prompting Miragliotta to stop the fight. The third man in the cage conferred with cage-side ref John McCarthy, who maintained Weidman's hands weren't touching the canvas when the knees were thrown. Mousasi's strikes were deemed kosher as a result, after which the cage-side doctor ruled Weidman unfit to continue, thereby anointing Mousasi the winner by second-round TKO.

Weidman later filed an ill-fated appeal of the verdict with the NYSAC.

UFC 217 will mark the first potential test of the new policy, and the sixth event the promotion has held in New York since MMA was legalized in the state in March 2016.