ONE FC 5: Tim Sylvia And Andrei Arlovski Go To No Contest Due To Illegal Soccer Kick

ONE FC's confusing rules involving strikes on the ground came back to bite them today as the ONE FC 5 co-main event bout between former UFC champions Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski went to a no contest. The fourth bout between the two men was certainly better than the third, but the ending was all sorts of strange.

After a spirited first two rounds, Arlovski dropped Sylvia late in the second and landed a soccer kick to the face. According to ONE FC rules, soccer kicks are legal, but only if the referee clears the fighter to do so after determining the grounded fighter can still intelligently defend himself. Because Arlovski received no such clearance, the kick was deemed illegal and Sylvia was given five minutes to recover. Unfortunately he was seeing double and the bout was brought to a halt.

You can catch gifs of the whole situation after the jump.

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In the above gif, you can see Arlovski dropping him with the right, then landing the two soccer kicks while the referee rushed in to stop Arlovski.

After the bout, Sylvia and Arlovski discussed the situation, seemingly agreeing to a fifth fight between the men.