Eric Nicksick was not happy with a call that was made in relation to one of his fighters at the first UFC event of the year. This past weekend at the Apex, Roman Kopylov and Chris Curtis earned the first fight of the night bonus of 2025 for their middleweight clash.
In the final seconds of the back-and-forth battle, Kopylov took Curtis off his feet with a head kick which referee Mark Smith deemed was the end of the fight. He stepped into wave the fight off with just one second left on the clock and his decision was instantly scrutinized by both Curtis and his Xtreme Couture corner.
Whilst his opponent believes that it was the right call to make, the argument in favor of Curtis is that with the final bell about to sound and his opponent backing off rather than pursuing his opponent, "The Action Man" was in no sense of danger whatsoever. On a recent episode of his Verse Us podcast, Nicksick spoke about how he was frustrated with the referee long before the stoppage for not punishing several fouls which slowed the fight down.
''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... 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 went on to talk specifically about the stoppage and goes further than that by talking about Smith's personality and his issues with the prominent official.
''You [Smith] decided to stop the fight with one second left... Let the motherfu*ker go out on his shield bro. That was some b*tch sh*t, you didn't have to stop the fight on that moment... He fraternizes with other gyms, teams, fighters, coaches and everything else... 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.”
Nicksick also posted the following statement on Instagram, addressing his reaction to the stoppage and apologizing for his actions.