This past weekend was quite eventful for MMA and especially so for the grappling population watching. But now much of the excitement has cleared out- the dust is ready to settle. And that means dealing with Roy Nelson’s careless foot shove of the ref that took place last Saturday.

Of course Roy Nelson subsequently apologized explaining the rationale for his rash move but insisted he wouldn’t take it back:

“It was a push,” said Nelson, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. “It was more of like, dude, come on.

“We had a conversation in the cage. I was like, ‘Dude, he was knocked out.’ And [McCarthy] was like, ‘No, he wasn’t.’ And I’m like, dude, I know what a knockout is. I knock people out. That’s what I do for a living. I know what a knockout is. Just because the guy didn’t roll his eyes into the back of his head, or shake, or whatever … it was just one of those things.”

“I didn’t want to hurt ‘Bigfoot’ more than I had to. And I got taken by the moment, because it’s like a cop beating the s*** out of somebody and you’re like, dude, enough is enough. And for me, it hurt my feelings. And I apologize to Big John, but I wouldn’t take it back. It just hurt me, that I’ve got to keep on hitting a guy that doesn’t need to be hit.”

“I knew I already knocked him out with my first punch, and then I got him one more time. In my head, it was like slow-mo, like I’m having a conversation with John going, ‘hey man, how is the weather over there?’ That’s what it felt like. I’m friends with ‘Bigfoot,’ and he has a family. I don’t need to keep on punching him in his face. And it’s not one of those [things] like, if I hit him so hard that he fell flat on his face, I would’ve just walked off like Mark Hunt. But he fell on his back.

“It wasn’t like he was so far away. He was over here to my side, and I know I had a conversation. I’m like, ‘he’s out.’ He’s like, ‘no he’s not, keep on moving.’ So for me, I feel like I’m giving ‘Bigfoot’ extra damage, where he doesn’t actually need to get hit that much.”

Dana White is calling for serious sanctions:

“You can’t apologize for that. You don’t ever put your fucking hands on a referee, or your feet, for any reason…”

White continued on the UFC Unfiltered podcast ” He needs to be buried. He went over there and he put his foot on his ass to like push him over, you know what I mean? Was flipping him off, yelling whatever. You wanna flip a ref off, there is never, ever a situation where you put your fucking hands on a referee. Ever.”

Of course Brazil, where the fight took place is also looking to sanction Nelson. It’s unclear whether his contract would be cut at this point but his behavior could be considered breaking the “morality clause” of the fighters contract. UFC has a lot of leeway in signing but also in letting go of fighters. Final punishment is yet to be determined.