UFC Atlantic City results: Ricky Simon takes controversial TKO over Merab Dvalishvili

The UFC Atlantic City prelim bout between Ricky Simon and Merab Dvalishvili had a wild, exciting finish — and a controversial one.

Simon, making his UFC debut Saturday night a short-notice replacement for Augusto Mendes in the bantamweight bout, had given a good accounting of himself, but Dvallshvili was likely to get the nod — until the crazy final seconds.

Simon aggressively went for a guillotine choke and got it with Dvallshvili hitting his head off the mat as they hit the ground. Simon held onto the choke until the horn, and Dvallshvili went unconscious as the horn sounded.

After a lengthy break to determine exactly what happened, referee Liam Kerrigan declared Simon the winner via TKO at 5:00 of the third round.

While the circumstances of the finish was certainly unusual, Simon has no doubt that his opponent went out and he deserved the victory.

“A little controversial,” Simon said. “I got up, I looked in his eyes, and he was gone. He was out.”

Simon improved to 13-1 in his career. Dvallshili, while coming within seconds of his first UFC victory, instead fell to 7-4 overall, 0-2 in the UFC.

Check out the finish below and judge for yourself whether the officials made the correct call: