It might be a tad nitpicky to try to find a flaw in an event as amazing as UFC Sao Paolo but it did seem that there was one pretty poor refereeing performance on the night.
Gleison Tibau got back in the win column with a first round rear naked choke submission of Abel Trujillo on the undercard of Saturday night’s event.
The only problem with that was the fact that the rear naked choke was nowhere near sunk in as the Brazilian was more on the side of Trujillo which reduces the pressure on the carotid arteries and his forearm didn’t even look to be sunk under the chin.
To be fair to the referee, it did look like Trujillo’s arms had gone limp for a split second but he should have known that there’s no real way that a fighter could go unconscious from that position and, without a tap, the fight should have continued.
Fighters, coaches and fight fans were in pretty unanimous agreement at the quality of the decision.
Terrible stoppage. A very poor understanding of jiu jitsu to think that sub had put him out.
— Coach JK (@John_Kavanagh) November 8, 2015
Wow that looked like Trujillo was getting his back to the mat and out of that choke. Bad stoppage. Tibau looked great though
— Chris Camozzi (@ChrisCamozzi) November 8, 2015
Wow just saw trujillo stoppage, that was not great
— ike vallie-flagg (@IKEVF) November 8, 2015
Keith Petersen is usually on point and consistent with his refereeing. He was too early on this rnc stoppage. #UFCSaoPaulo
— Kenny Florian (@kennyflorian) November 8, 2015
Bad stoppage😳
— Ruslan Magomedov (@MagomedovUFC) November 8, 2015
Crazy stoppage, bad! #UFC
— Igor Araujo (@igoraraujojj) November 8, 2015
Glad to see @GleisonTibauMMA get a W but that was a bad stoppage @ufc! #UFCBrazil #UFC #mma — Chris Kelades (@keladesmma) November 8, 2015
Bad stoppage bro @AbelTrujillo1 keep you head up see you in 2 weeks .. Its #KillaSeason 💪👊
— robin van roosmalen (@robinvroosmalen) November 8, 2015
Watching the replay… That was a bad stoppage. Ref didn't check the arms at all. #UFCSaoPaulo
— SteveO (@TheSteveOG) November 8, 2015
https://twitter.com/DavidMullinsMMA/status/663186175470002176
https://twitter.com/MontyArthur/status/663184056905936897
https://twitter.com/Robzombiex/status/663184116586840064
Bad stoppage call by Keith Peterson. Trujillo was fighting to get out of Tibau's choke. Eyes were closed out of reflex, not incapacitation.
— ZB (@ZachBoyleMMA) November 8, 2015
