UFC 185-pound champion Israel Adesanya weighed in on recent controversy in the bantamweight title fight between Sean O’Malley (17-1-0 10-1-0 UFC) and Aljamain Sterling (23-4-0 14-4-0 UFC).
Last Saturday at UFC 292, O’Malley caught Sterling with a counter right hand, knocking him to the canvas. O’Malley followed that up with several heavy ground-and-pound shots. Although Sterling looked like he wanted to scramble, Marc Goddard went in and waved the fight off.
Israel Adesanya Thinks Fight Would’ve Ended Same Way
According to Israel Adesanya, Marc Goddard could have let the fight go on longer, but the fight most likely would have continued the same way.
““It could have gone for a little bit longer, but it would have been bad. It was just on. He was standing over him… Clean finish,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMANews).
Even though this was the case, controversy has arisen as far as Goddard’s decision to stop the fight. Many fighters thought that it was an early stoppage even after Sterling rolled to his back and covered up. As far as Sterling, he agreed with Adesanya.
“I felt like the fight could’ve still kept going, to be honest,” Sterling said. “I rolled over to try to come back up, and as soon as he stepped in, I was fine. It was just one of those things. I can’t be mad at the ref. It is what it is.”
Aljamain Sterling also told reporters after the fight that he spoke to the cageside doctor who asked him a series of questions to determine his mental acuity. He asked Sterling what state they were fighting in, and the clearly-concussed fighter failed to respond.
Taking fighter safety into account, it sounds like Goddard made the right decision and Sterling will be able to fight another day.
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