Slutet på matchen mellan Chris Weidman och Luke Rockhold var minst sagt ingen vacker syn, då mästaren blev slagen blodig i en skoningslös ground and pound med både nävar och armbågar när matchen hamnade på mattan.
Domaren Herb Dean såg ut att vara på väg att stoppa matchen vid ett par tillfällen men matchen fortsatte och Weidman fortsatte att ta emot slag.
Rockholds tränare Javier Mendez är en utav de som blivit mest upprörda över händelsen och hade stoppat det om han kunde, oavsett vad konsekvenserna skulle blivit.
Det här berättade Mendez, via ”MMA Fighting”:
That was a colossal mistake. Because we didn’t know what was going to happen when someone was on top of Chris, or if Luke could stay on top of him. Luke proved what he said all along, that he felt he had the best MMA jiu-jitsu out there for top control, and he proved it.
Well, let’s put it this way, I was cussing. I was cussing. I was literally, just, f-ing pissed. And I’m not really blaming Herb, per se. I’m blaming the way the system is. It needs to be like boxing where we as corners don’t have to go to the doctor to stop the damn fight, where we just stand up in the cage or whatever and we throw the towel and the fight is over. It should be a simplified rule, just like boxing.
Who knows the fighters better than the coaches, as far as what the fights can do and what they can’t do? Who knows them better? We do. Not the doctor, not the refs. We do. If we see our fighter and we know he’s going to take a beating, we should be able to throw the damn towel and without any interruptions from the doctor or anybody. And we shouldn’t be reprimanded from it.
Enligt reglerna för MMA är det inte otillåtet att kasta in handduken, men däremot i vissa stater som till exempel Nevada. I Nevada måste en cornerman då meddela en närvarande inspektör från kommissionen om att man begär att matchen ska stoppas, som sedan meddelar domaren.
If anybody should be pissed it should be our fighters, ‘why’d you throw in the freaking towel,’ they’d have to deal with that. ”But I’m really angry about that because in Mexico, too, you had poor Scott Jorgensen. He was in the same scenario (against Alejandro Perez), and it’s like, goddamnit. This is a sport, and when you see things like that, it doesn’t make it too sporting for me. So I’m sorry I’m angry about it, but it just angers me that fighters are getting injured more than they need to because of one stupid rule that prohibits us from just doing a simple thing like boxing does.
Resultatet av dessa regler gör ofta att man inte medveten om man får stoppa matchen eller inte. Mendez var osäker på vilka regler som gällde men berättar att det också är ovanligt att matchen stoppas på det sättet, eftersom det så ses som att fightern snarare ger upp än att skydda sig från bestående skador.
It shouldn’t be looked down upon. If that’s the official rule, then it should be that, ‘hey, you guys, we encourage you. Know your fighters. Don’t let your fighters take the punishment.’ In this case, I bet you Ray Longo and Matt Serra were thinking, ‘f**k, I want to throw in the towel.’ I bet you they were. I bet you they weren’t thinking, ‘come on, Chris, pull out of it.’ I bet you they were thinking, ‘what the f**k is going on?!’
They care so much about their guys and they’re such great coaches, I know they were thinking the same thing. There should be a clear understanding of how we need to stop these fights, because Chris didn’t need to take that unnecessary punishment. He did not. And I dare anybody to disagree with me.
I would’ve stopped it. There would’ve been no questions asked. I would’ve stopped that damn fight, and then I would’ve dealt with the consequences with Luke.
Weidman förlorade i fjärde ronden via knockout. Detta blev hans första förlust i karriären och han då av med mellanviktstiteln.
