Anthony Smith has been around the fight game long enough to recognize a knockout and he believes that’s absolutely not what happened to Rodolfo Bellato on Saturday night at UFC Atlanta.
The controversial ending to the featured prelim came after Bellato ate an illegal upkick from Paul Craig just before the horn sounded to close the first round. The kick connected and Bellato fell backwards and it appeared he was protesting to the referee about the illegal blow.
Then a split second later, Bellato suddenly fell unconscious before he woke up again and tried grappling with the referee before the fight was stopped. In the end, referee Kevin McDonald declared the fight a no-contest, but Smith doesn’t buy that Bellato was knocked out in that instant.
“It was a great fight up until the way that it ended all weird,” Smith said during the UFC Atlanta post fight show. “Paul Craig was really forcing the takedowns, he ends up shooting the takedown, pulls guard, the round ends and he throws an upkick while Bellato, he has a knee down. So that’s an illegal strike. I’m going to be hard here. I’m going to be hard on Bellato.
“As the upkick happens, he looks to the referee to see if the referee realized that was illegal. He looks right to him. You see his eyes come to the referee to protest and then realizes maybe I can get a free win. Lays there, pretends he’s unconscious, jolts back awake allegedly. Referee comes over. That is a man who is awake, pretends to grapple the referee as if he’s unconscious, trying to get a cheap win. I’ve been doing this a long time and I know what it looks like when somebody’s faking it.”
Bro what the hell? #UFCAtlanta pic.twitter.com/HVm5zgy2Tn
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) June 15, 2025
Smith watched another version of the replay and doubled down on his belief that Bellato was faking the knockout after the illegal shot landed.
While he doesn’t dispute that Craig threw and connected with an illegal kick, Smith doesn’t buy that Bellato was actually that hurt given his reaction.
“He’s going to look to the referee, ‘Oh my god that’s illegal! Oh I better pretend I’m unconscious,” Smith said doing play-by-play while rewatching the fight. “The jolt back awake. This is the worst performance I’ve ever seen. The referee knows this is not really happening. I feel really bad for Paul Craig.
“We’re laughing about it and joking because it is so silly what happened here with Rodolfo Bellato and Paul Craig but Paul Craig, although he did break the rules. We have to address that. He did break the rules. It wasn’t intentional. But that’s a fight that seemingly could have continued. I’m not going to pretend I’m in his head and can tell how bad it actually did hurt. He definitely was not unconscious and hurt as he was pretending to be. That’s for sure.”
The fight between Craig and Bellato was previously rescheduled after the matchup was scrapped just a few weeks ago due to Bellato being diagnosed with herpes. The UFC then rebooked the fight for Saturday’s card in Atlanta where a strange knockout led to the no-contest.
As much as Smith acknowledged that Craig did wrong with the illegal kick, he still doesn’t believe the veteran light heavyweight deserved to have his night end in such a bizarre and unsatisfying manner.
“I do feel for Paul Craig,” Smith said. “He worked really hard to push this fight a whole other month to ultimately not have a result.”
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