Walt Harris To Appeal UFC 217 Loss

Walt Harris suffered a disqualification loss after nailing Mark Godbeer with an illegal head kick on the UFC 217 preliminary card.

The fighter isn’t happy with the way things went down and he is planning on filing an appeal with the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC).

“I spoke with Dana right afterward, and he told me to contest it,” Harris said to MMA Junkie Radio. “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 suffered his second straight defeat at the event, with that first loss coming to former UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum at UFC 216.

Not only does Harris feel cheated by the events that took place, but he believes the fans were cheated as well.

“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?,” says Harris.

There is no timeframe as to when Harris appeal is going to be heard and ruled on by the NYSAC.