After a lively opening to their 205-pound contest, the fight went to the ground and, during a scramble, Craig threw an up-kick that caught Bellato while he was still technically grounded. It meant the Scot’s strike was an illegal one and it ultimately led to the bout being stopped.
However, it wasn’t Craig’s ill-judged technique that caused the controversy – it was Bellato’s subsequent reaction, which has led to a significant amount of criticism, including from former UFC light heavyweight title challenger and UFC analyst Anthony Smith, who made his thoughts clear during the UFC Atlanta post-fight show.
“It was a great fight up until the way that it ended all weird,” said Smith (as reported by MMA Fighting)
“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.”
Bro what the hell?😭#UFCAtlanta pic.twitter.com/HVm5zgy2Tn
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) June 15, 2025
Smith then turned his attention to Bellato as he said, “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.”
Smith then talked through a replay and offered his take on Bellato’s mindset as the incident played out.
“He’s going to look to the referee, ‘Oh my god that’s illegal! Oh I better pretend I’m unconscious,'” he said.
“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 left a bad taste in the mouth for fans, but it also left Craig frustrated after his initial booking against Bellato was pushed back due to the Brazilian contracting herpes ahead of the original fight date, then for the rearranged bout to end in frustrating, bizarre circumstances.
Smith certainly sympathized.
“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.”
