Bellator lightweight Josh Thomson wants the California State Athletic Commission to overturn his knockout loss to Patricky Freire in the headliner of Bellator 172, MMAjunkie has learned.

CSAC Executive Director Andy Foster confirmed Thomson’s appeal request after veteran referee “Big” John McCarthy on Wednesday told MMAjunkie Radio he will offer his testimony during the process. Thomson also told MMAjunkie he is seeking a no-contest ruling and declined further comment.

Officially, the Feb. 18 bout is on the books as a knockout win for Freire (17-8 MMA, 10-7 BMMA), who caught Thomson (22-9 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) with a vicious uppercut early in the fight’s second round in the Spike-televised headliner at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. (watch the highlights above). McCarthy on Wednesday said he stopped the bout based on Freire’s strike, but he wasn’t sure whether a knockdown that immediately preceded it was caused by a legal blow or inadvertent clash of heads.

“I see Patricky go after Josh, Josh gets knocked down, I see his hand go back to brace his fall, he gets himself back up, starts swinging, and gets hit with an uppercut, and it knocks him out,” McCarthy said. “And in that situation, I was not sure. Was Josh hurt by what seemed to be a clash of heads, or was that a punch?

“I went to one of my judges and said, ‘Did you see if that was a head-butt or a punch?’ And he said, ‘It was a punch.’ And he gave me the wrong information, because if you go back and watch, that first knockdown was a head-butt. So Josh is going to contest that fight based on, ‘I got hurt by a head-butt.'”

In the case of an accidental foul that involves a concussive impact to the head and renders a fighter incapable of continuing, a no-contest should result if a three-round bout hasn’t gone past the second round. There’s also precedent in California for Freire’s win to be overturned; a third-round TKO for Robbie Peralta over Mackens Semerzier at UFC on FOX 1 was changed to a no contest when the CSAC determined that an accidental head-butt had set the finish in motion. McCarthy recommended the change in a letter to the commission.

As for what happens in Thomson’s case, the veteran referee isn’t sure. But based upon his review of the fight afterward, he believes an accidental foul led to a finish, though he couldn’t see it at the time.

“Now, is that going to change it? That’s for the state athletic commission to say,” McCarthy said. “But I’m going to be honest and say I saw something, (and) I wasn’t sure if it was a punch or a clash of the heads that hurt him.

“I went and asked somebody, and got information saying it was a punch, so it was the end of the fight based on a punch that I did see land that was legal that did land that was legal that did knock him out that was the end of the fight.”

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