Evidence for
The Reversed Decision at XVT 5

Companion notes

XVT 5’s overturned Costa Rica decision between Ferrid Kheder and Hermes Franca

The contemporaneous record establishes that Ferrid Kheder and Hermes Franca met in the main event of Xtreme Vale Todo 5 in Cartago on December 19, 2010, and that the aftermath quickly became a dispute over what the judges had actually decided. The sources document an initial winner announcement, conflicting public explanations, and a later request that the bout be changed to a no contest, but they do not establish a regulatory finding of wrongdoing.

The Paper Trail & Official Records

The core documentary trail is built from the event listing and contemporaneous fight reporting. Sherdog’s XVT 5 event page records the Franca-Kheder main event and later classifies it as a no contest overturned by the promoter, while Sherdog’s fight report describes the bout action and the contested post-fight handling. MMA Fighting’s later account adds that promoter Jean-Francois Billon framed the incident as confusion, creating a paper trail of a disputed result rather than a settled commission disposition. [S1], [S8], [S15]

Other reference sources corroborate the event identity and the principal actors: GracieMag places Hermes Franca in Costa Rica for the loss report, while the biographical entries on Franca and Kheder situate both men as recognizable fighters tied to the same bout. Those materials are useful for provenance because they align the date, place, and combatants, but they do not add an independent regulatory ruling or formal adjudication. The documentary record is therefore strongest on occurrence and aftermath, weaker on any final official explanation. [S5], [S9], [S16]

Forensic Chronology & Turning Points

The timeline is unusually tight. On December 19, 2010, at the San Luis Gonzaga High School Gymnasium in Cartago, the main event ended and the announcement sequence immediately became the first turning point: Sherdog reports that the ring announcer initially named Franca the winner and then switched to Kheder. That sequence matters because it shows the controversy did not emerge later through rumor; it began at the cage side, in real time, at the moment of result handling. [S1], [S8]

A second turning point came through post-fight statements. MMA Fighting reports that all three judges told the outlet they scored the bout for Franca, while Billon said he heard Kheder from the judges and characterized the problem as confusion. The same report says Lu Dwyer contacted Sherdog’s MMA database within 48 hours and requested that the result be changed to a no contest. That request is the clearest documented procedural step after the event, and it is separate from any formal athletic commission process. [S15], [S16]

Evidentiary Boundaries & Negative Findings

The record supports a narrow conclusion: the fight occurred, the result handling was inconsistent, and the public explanation fractured between a winner announcement, a judge consensus reported to the press, and a later promoter-side request for a no contest. It also supports Franca’s own position that he believed he had won. What it does not support is a definitive finding that the bout was fixed, or that any official tribunal found bribery, fraud, or criminal conduct. Those are serious allegations, but they remain outside the established documentary record. [S1], [S15]

The negative findings are just as important as the affirmative ones. No cited source here provides a commission ruling setting aside the fight on disciplinary grounds, and the promoter’s explanation of “confusion” is not the same as proof of a manipulated contest. Likewise, the identification of Lu Dwyer as a sponsor or promoter-linked figure shows proximity and involvement, not misconduct. For the public record, the safest phrasing is that XVT 5 produced a disputed decision and a subsequent no-contest request, not a proven fix. [S5], [S9], [S14], [S15]

Source key

The associated evidence packet contains visible source URLs, source roles and the complete claim ledger.