On Saturday evening, MMA fans watched on in bewilderment as some incredible scenes unfolded during Eddie Alvarez’s comeback bout against the in form Dustin Poirier.

After severely rocking Alvarez in the second round, Poirier looked to finish the fight. However, as he rushed his opponent, ‘The Diamond’ was caught on the way in and ended up getting seriously tagged himself.

Then, with the fight on the cage, Alvarez landed two successive knees to the head of Poirier (both of which were illegal) and the fight had to be stopped.

Having reviewed the footage and discussed the situation with some ringside officials, referee Herb Dean deemed the fight to be a ‘no contest’. However, for many watching, the decision was incorrect and Alvarez should have been disqualified – handing a win to Poirier.

That's a DQ…..in my opinion #UFC211 — Cub Swanson (@CubSwanson) May 14, 2017

However, speaking immediately after the bout, Poirier endorsed the decision, defending his opponent and claiming that the knees were accidental.

Hey! Don’t boo this man. This guy’s a champion! This guy’s fought all over the world. I got nothing but respect for this guy! Don’t boo this man. This guy’s a warrior! We both put it on the line every time we step in here! This is unfortunate, Eddie didn’t mean to do that, but like he said, this is a fist fight. We’re fighting.

However, as is often the case in such heated moments, some time to reflect can change one’s perspective on an incident and now, less than 24 hours after the fight, Ariel Helwani has reported that Poirier’s team will in fact appeal against Herb Dean’s ruling.

According to his team, @DustinPoirier will be appealing yesterday's NC contest ruling w/ the TX commission. They believe it should be a DQ. — Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 14, 2017

As was explained by Joe Rogan during the fight, the referee’s interpretation of the controversial knees was incorrect and both blows were illegal (Dean believed the first knee to be clean). As such, it seems very likely that this decision will in fact be overturned and Poirier will be handed the victory.

Check out the incident in question along with Poirier’s defence of Alvarez in the video below;

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