Anthony Smith on Bellato’s Reaction to Foul: 'Worst Performance I’ve Ever Seen'

As soon as the light heavyweight clash between Rodolfo Bellato and Paul Craig at UFC Atlanta ended, the speculation began.

The bout was halted when Craig landed an illegal upick on his Brazilian foe at the 4:59 mark of Round 1. Bellato appeared to go out before suddenly jolting back to consciousness and attempting to grapple with referee Kevin MacDonald. As a result, the bout was declared a no contest.

More than a few observers questioned the legitimacy of Bellato’s reaction, especially since he appeared to be looking at the referee in protest as he fell to the canvas. That skepticism included the UFC Atlanta post-fight show team of Anthony Smith, Stephen Thompson and Dan Hellie. Smith was especially blunt when calling out the Brazilian for his actions.

“It was a great fight up until the way that it ended all weird. 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,” Smith said on the post-fight show.

“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.”

Smith was the recipient of a foul in his bid for light heavyweight gold at UFC 235, when he lost a unanimous decision to Jon Jones. In that bout, “Lionheart” absorbed an illegal knee from Jones in the fourth stanza, and while two points were taken from the champ, Smith elected to continue fighting.

As for Bellato vs. Craig, the fight was still very much up for grabs as the opening round drew to a close. While Smith acknowledged that Craig did land an illegal blow, he reiterated his claim that Bellato exaggerated his reaction.

“He’s going to look to the referee, ‘Oh my god that’s illegal! Oh I better pretend I’m unconscious. 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,” Smith said.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Thompson called Bellato’s reaction an “Oscar performance,” and Hellie referred to it as “WWE-level stuff.”

Bellato and Craig were initially scheduled to meet at UFC Vegas 106 on May 17, but the Brazilian was forced to withdraw due to a case of herpes. Bellato is now 1-1 with one no contest in the UFC, while Craig has won just one of his last seven promotional outings.