The roar inside RAC Arena was deafening as Jake Matthews had his countrymen behind him, pressing Neil Magny to the brink in their welterweight showdown at UFC Perth. In round one, he locked in a tight guillotine. Magny’s arm appeared to go limp, and for a fleeting second, the referee stepped forward as if to stop it. Matthews thought he had won. The crowd thought he had won. But then, chaos followed. Magny protested as the horn for the end of the round sounded, the fight continued, and the Australian was left reeling from what felt like a victory snatched away.

By round three, the tables had turned. ‘The Haitian Sensation’, known for his impossible comebacks, found Matthews’ neck and cinched in a D’arce choke. The tap came, and with it, heartbreak for ‘The Celtic Kid’. But the drama didn’t end when the cage door closed. Matthews recently announced his intention to appeal the result, thrusting the fight into even murkier waters. Could he really get it overturned?

Jake Matthews’ appeal for UFC Perth loss to Neil Magny receives a grim forecast from Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen, never one to sidestep controversy, gave his blunt assessment in a YouTube video and shared, “So, Jake Matthews is going to appeal this result. Now this fight took place in Australia, so to appeal it, if he actually goes forward with this, he’s going to have to do that with the jurisdiction being in Australia, which is tough and it’s expensive, and it’s frankly, unlikely, and it seems as though it’s hard to overturn.”

‘The Bad Guy’ also questioned the foundation of the referee’s call as he further stated, “Though we all would be learning something, and I have always believed that the referee’s decision is final but that would not exclude the referee changing his mind, which means the referee’s second opinion is final or if he wanted to switch it from that the referee’s third opinion is final. I don’t quite know how to interpret the referee’s decision being final if he has an argument with himself, now of course that’s going to change the way the entire fight plays out.”

Let’s pause here for a moment. Appeals in MMA aren’t unheard of, but they are rare. Earlier this year, Cody Brundage successfully overturned a loss to Mansur Abdul Malik after a commission error in Georgia. His fight was changed to a draw because the officials misapplied the scoring rules after a clash of heads. That was a clear, written statute violation. Jake Matthews’ case, however, is built on the referee’s split-second judgment, and that’s where things get tricky.

As Sonnen explained in his YouTube video, “If you’re in Matthews’ spot, you’ve done your job and you’re led to believe by the highest rated official known as the referee that you have done your job successfully and that your job is done. Boy, it’s very hard to get up and keep playing. But is it the rule? Does the rule allow for that? Does the rule allow for the referee to make a decision? Second guess it, change his own decision and go on with the contest. I must tell you, I don’t know. I haven’t seen it before.”

Unlike Brundage’s appeal, Jake Matthews is not challenging a scoring error or rulebook misstep. He is asking a commission to question the referee’s instinct in real time, then reverse an outcome after the fact. That’s why the appeal is such an uphill climb. Even if the commission reviews the footage, the path to overturning a clean tap-out in round three looks slim, which was also alluded to by Chael Sonnen.

For  Matthews, this appeal is more than paperwork. It’s about justice after he felt robbed of momentum in front of his home fans. Entering UFC Perth, he was on a three-fight win streak, eyeing a place in the top 15 of the division. Instead, he left with a bitter taste and questions about what might have been. In fact, even UFC executive David Shaw has also broken his silence on the confusing sequence of events in that fight!

David Shaw addresses the controversy surrounding “confusion” during the Matthews vs Magny bout

Speaking at the post-fight press conference in Perth, the UFC’s vice president of international and content didn’t shy away from addressing the controversy as David Shaw stated, “The whole situation was strange, there was confusion where we were sitting. There were a number of us just talking through the particulars.”

Pointing out how Neil Magny‘s arm seemed to go limp, which likely led the referee to assume he was finished, Shaw also added that the timing of the call right before the bell only added to the chaos. While the referee, Jim Perdios, quickly clarified that the fight was still on, the damage to Matthews’ momentum was already done. As such, Shaw noted, “Jake got off because of the bell, very clearly the ref thought that Neil was coming to it, or he was fine, and allowed the fight to continue. So where do we go from here?”

The UFC executive didn’t mince words about the broader issue either. In his view, “there seemed to be a mistake.” But what happens next won’t be decided by the UFC. Jake Matthews’ appeal is now in the hands of the Western Australia Combat Commission. Shaw stressed that it’s their call whether the result is overturned, changed to a no-contest, or simply left as is.

So, both Chael Sonnen and David Shaw agree on one thing: mistakes were made. The difference lies in what can actually be done about it. Sonnen sees Matthews’ appeal as expensive and unlikely, while Shaw acknowledges the referee’s call created confusion that shifted the fight’s momentum. Yet, neither man controls the outcome. That responsibility falls squarely on the Western Australia Combat Commission.

The question now becomes, can a commission be convinced to overturn a tap-out finish based on a referee’s hesitation? Or will this fight become another painful reminder that in MMA, once the referee waves you on, the consequences are yours to live with? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!