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In the wake of his UFC 268 triumph, Justin Gaethje took issue with referee Mike Beltran's treatment of his eye poke by Michael Chandler in the second round. However, Chael Sonnen recently jumped to the referee's aid, hailing him for his skill.
While in conversation with Jon Anik and Kenny Florian on the Anik and Florian podcast, Gaethje opined that referee Beltran's indecisiveness almost cost him $1M. He also alleged that the referee was looking to restart the action almost immediately, without offering 'The Highlight' an opportunity to recover from the eye poke.
However, Chael Sonnen, on a recent edition of Beyond the Fight, revealed that Beltran had taken control of the situation perfectly. He also hailed Beltran as one of the greatest referees in the business:
"Mike Beltran as a referee is beyond reproach. You've never heard anybody ever question him. He is on my Mt. Rushmore. He is a Top-4 ever. He is in charge of that cage, period," declared Chael Sonnen.
Catch Chael Sonnen breaking the Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler fight down right here:
Chael Sonnen claims Justin Gaethje "called his own timeout"; compares him to Matt Hughes
Sonnen subsequently went on to detail how Justin Gaethje called his own timeout of sorts. This was because the referee had not called for the action to stop when Gaethje pulled back to draw attention to the eye poke:
"Gaethje tried to back up. But I remember watching the fight and going, 'Hey Chandler, go! Gaethe doesn't get to call timeout and the referee hasn't.' This used to get looked at very closely because Matt Hughes, when he was the champion, went through a period of time where he was calling his own timeouts. And every referee gave it to him. Which is illegal. You can't do that," opined Chael Sonnen.
Sonnen went on to acknowledge Gaethje's side of the story. He said the issue was nothing more than a matter of miscommunication between Justin Gaethje and Mike Beltran.
