Bad news for Jim Alers after eating illegal knee at UFC Fight Night 60

Jim Alers and Chas Skelly

The possibility of Jim Alers appealing and overturning his loss at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 60 event is, it seems, slim at best.

Alers (13-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) ultimately suffered a second-round TKO loss to fellow featherweight Chas Skelly (14-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) in a FOX Sports 1-televised preliminary-card bout at Broomfield, Colo.’s 1STBank Center.

However, prior to the stoppage, which came a mere second before the end of the second round, Skelly caught Alers with an illegal knee. Alers had a knee and hand on the mat, making him a downed opponent, but Skelly connected anyway.

Alers was clearly in trouble of being stopped before the blow, but rules are rules, right? Unfortunately, when MMAjunkie lead staff reporter John Morgan caught up with the Alers camp at the Denver airport this morning, it didn’t sound the like fighter can expect the Colorado Office of Boxing to do much (via Twitter):

After the fight, which snapped a nine-fight winning streak for former Cage Warriors champ Alers, the fighter also didn’t get much support from UFC President Dana White, who suggested the blow was simply a quirk of the sport.

“That was one of those situations where he was hitting the guy, and when he threw the knee – I mean, when you see it in slow motion, he throws the knee while the guy is falling down,” White said. “The guy who gets hit – (his) knee hits the ground as soon as he lands.

“I actually think the ref did a good job on that fight. It’s not like the guy was kneeling and he was still in the fight. He was done, and his knee was dropping.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 60, check out the UFC Events section of the site.