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In a fight that starred Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal, and had Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in the house to give away the BMF belt to the winner, an NYSAC Chief Medical Officer managed to grab the limelight by stopping the contest midway.
Needless to say, the fighters were not happy, and neither was the crowd.
What happened in the Octagon?
In an intense sequence early in the first round, a vicious elbow followed by a swift kick to the head by Masvidal dropped Diaz to the ground and also busted up his right eye. When Diaz’s face was caught on camera, there were deep cuts above and below the eye and it was covered in blood.
But being the bulldozer he is, Diaz continued to fight as it is for two more rounds, and it seemed towards the end of the third that he was going to pick up the pace and deliver a powerful performance in the final two rounds. But the doctor stepped in before the fourth round could begin and after a cursory glance at his eyes, decided to call the fight off.
Diaz is well known for fighting with far worse cuts and bruises in the Octagon, so the crowd was naturally surprised and then frustrated at how the much-awaited BMF title fight ended.
Masvidal almost got his perfect win
No one is happy with the doctor’s stoppage of the fight, least of all Masvidal himself. Even though the decision meant that he would be wearing the custom-made BMF belt around his waist, that too given away by ‘The Rock’, it was very apparent that he was thoroughly unsatisfied with the ending.
Similar sentiments were reflected in his post-event interview as well, where he regretted missing out on his chance of ‘painting his Picasso’.
“As far as painting my Picasso, I almost got to do it you know?”
He also addressed the pre-fight comments where people said he would be bettered by Diaz if the fight went to the ground. Masvidal challenged everyone to find a fight where he lost his touch after the third round, and said that if the bout went on, he would only keep hitting Diaz harder. He had a word or two to say about his rival as well.
“I heard a lot of comments, I read a lot of stuff. A lot of people talking about the later a fight goes if the fight hits the ground I would have been outworked or outclassed. I want people to pull up a fight where I faded in the fourth round. What happened in the third, was going to keep happening in the fourth, and in the fifth. I was ready to f*** him up, keep going man. Nate's a f***ing dog though. Those same shots I hit a lot of people and folded them up like an armchair.”
Note:Please credit Sportskeeda for any quotes taken from this article.
No one knows if there will be a rematch of the fight where the fans would get to see a proper stoppage or knockout. UFC President Dana White is not too taken by the idea either. Either way, Jorge Masvidal gets to call himself the baddest mother****** for now.
Watch the full press conference here.
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