WEC question from Adrian

My friend Adrian sent me an IM after watching the WEC 38 card last night about the "unintentional foul" rule that ended the Jamie Varner-Donald Cerrone fight early in the 5th round. Here is what happened: Both guys were momentarily fighting off their knees, Cerrone got up and Varner briefly got into a kind of squatting position but then came back down to his knees. But Cerrone, unaware of Varner's switch back to the position on his knees threw a knee strike to Varner's head and caught him in the forehead. Had Varner been in the squatting position still, this would have been a legal move but with his knees on the ground, it's considered an illegal knee to a downed opponent. This is actually rule #15 in the UFC rules (according to the UFC Rules list on UFC.com). So anyways, since Cerrone only threw the knee strike cuz he thought Varner was still on his feet, the judges and referee considered it an unintentional foul. Had Cerrone done this intentionally Varner would have won by what is called a "DQ" (disqualification), unless he was able to continue, in which case the referee would have deducted a point from Cerrone.

No worries though because there will be an immediate rematch between this two. The fight was great and really entertaining and frankly the WEC doesn't have anyone else worthwhile to throw at Varner. I actually would expect that the WEC is pretty thrilled that the fight was as good as it was because I doubt they really had any other options for a next fight for Varner if he had dominated this fight.

Link to a video of this fight: http://www.mmaimpact.com/jamie-varner-vs-donald-cerrone-fight-video-wec-38/