Walt Harris will appeal DQ loss to Mark Godbeer at UFC 217: 'He cheated the fans, he cheated me'

Following his controversial disqualification loss to Mark Godbeer on Saturday, Walt Harris says he was advised by UFC president Dana White to file an appeal.

So that’s just what he’s going to do.

Harris (10-7 MMA, 3-6 UFC) was off to a good start in his FS1-televised UFC 217 encounter with fellow heavyweight Godbeer (13-3 MMA, 2-1 UFC) when things took a turn for the messy. After a knee landed on Godbeer’s groin, the referee verbally signaled and seemingly touched Harris’ leg to call a time out. Just as he did that, though, Harris threw a head kick that also landed.

At the 4:29 mark of Round 1, the doctor deemed Godbeer unable to continue. Harris was declared the loser via disqualification – bringing on not only a second consecutive setback to his record, but also accusations of being a dirty fighter. (via Twitter)

Two days later, Harris offered his side of Saturday’s events to MMAjunkie Radio. The heavyweight vehemently maintains that he didn’t cheat. And he clarified that, if for the viewers the yells of a mic’d up ref may have come across loud and clear, it’s quite different when you’re inside the cage and mid-combination.

Harris, simply put, thought he’d hurt his opponent with a knee. Then he pounced, focused only on getting the finish. Considering the circumstances and the referee’s position, Harris says, he couldn’t hear nor see him in the few seconds while that it was all happening.

“I felt like (the referee) was a bit late,” Harris said. “He said he yelled, but it’s a fight. I can’t hear you yelling. I barely can hear my own corner. I’m in the middle of a fight trying to finish the fight. From what I saw on the replay, I saw he was getting there as the kick landed.”

If the internet isn’t showing Harris much support, he’s not entirely alone, either. According to the heavyweight, he found support in White to not only try to clear his name, but also his record.

“I spoke with Dana right afterward, and he told me to contest it,” Harris said. “He told me to appeal it. He said he felt like, you know, there’s a replay and I had a chance to win if I appealed. And that’s what I’m going to do. I feel like, at worst, it should have been a no-contest. If you remember, Curtis Blaydes and Aleksei Oleinik had the same type of situation, and they gave Curtis the win.

“I don’t understand how mine just went straight to a disqualification when there was conclusive evidence on the replay that the knee didn’t land low and I was in the heat of the fight. It wasn’t like the ref had put his hands on me, stopped my momentum, and then I took off and went and hit him. I was in the middle of a combination. So, to just go straight to a disqualification is like – I don’t understand it.”

Harris was referring to yet another confusing heavyweight contest, which took place earlier that night. After Blaydes threw an illegal kick to his downed opponent, the fight was halted and the doctor deemed Oleinik unfit to continue. The replay, however, showed that the kick only grazed Oleinik’s ear and, therefore, didn’t cause the fight-ending damage. Blaydes won via TKO.

While Harris walked away with the loss, he believes that his appeal might result in a positive outcome. In the meantime, he’s expecting to take the week off and get right back into the gym to prepare for whatever else the UFC has in store for him.

But he is hoping that this doesn’t mean another meeting with Godbeer. The two were, in fact, supposed to have met before, at UFC 216. A last-minute injury suffered by Derrick Lewis, however, left former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum without an opponent for his main card bout – so Harris stepped in.

Harris was choked out by Werdum but soon got rescheduled against Godbeer, and we saw how that one unfolded. What we didn’t get to see, though, was how the heavyweight feud continued backstage, as the two exchanged heated words about the situation.

“He said I cheated; he said he’d fight me again,” Harris said. “I’m like, ‘Bro, you had the chance to fight me. Take your five minutes, and then get yourself together and come back and fight.’ He took the easy way out. Point blank, period. I don’t care what anybody says. He took the easy way out. He knows it. His camp knows it. Everybody in that arena knew it.

“So don’t sit here – he’s yelling and screaming back and forth with me. I basically called him a (expletive). Because that’s what I felt in the moment. He (expletive)’d out. He took the easy way out. He knew he was losing the fight. And he knew it was just a matter of time before I put him away.”

The two, Harris said, had to be separated “a little bit” after the heated exchange. And while the bad blood that now seems to linger between the two could certainly work to fuel a rematch in the future, Harris clarifies that he’s ready to move on.

“He quit, bottom line,” Harris said. “I feel like he could’ve continued. There’s been numerous fights where I was hit low. And if you watch, I’ve got pictures – the kick hit him in the neck. It didn’t hit him in the face, chin, it didn’t even connect clean. And he reacted afterward. And then he went to his corner and took a knee, like he couldn’t continue.

“I feel like he cheated the fans, he cheated me. No, I don’t want to fight him again. What’s the point? Honestly. He said I cheated. Why would I do that if I was winning the fight handily? What would be the need to do something dirty?”

Harris is clearly ready to fight to clean the most recent blemish on his record. But, as it stands, he walked away from Saturday’s major Madison Square Garden event with both a loss and a somewhat of a negative public perception.

Which one hurts most, though? After putting in basically a 14-week camp to return to the winning path, Harris doesn’t wince.

“The loss, man,” Harris said. “People are going to say what they’re going to say. But I’ve worked so hard to be in the position where I am now. I can’t deal with a l loss like that. Especially when I was winning the fight as dominantly as I was. Thats what bothers me.”

To hear from Harris, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC 217, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

Godbeer def. Harris

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