Mario Yamasaki believes his decision to stop UFC on FOX 24’s 185-pound main card bout was the right one.
Last night (April 15), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweights Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Robert Whittaker did battle inside the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Whittaker stunned the world of mixed martial arts (MMA) when he finished Souza in the second round.
While most would agree that the stoppage was fair, there are some who feel Souza had a chance to recover. Speaking to MMAFighting.com, Yamasaki said he doesn’t regret stepping in and saving “Jacare” from further punishment:
“I re-watched the fight, but I know what I did there, I know what was going on. I was the one in there. Watching on TV, people have a different image than the one I’m seeing in there, and I have to follow the rules. The rules say I have to protect the athlete, and when the fighter is not intelligently defending himself anymore, he’s on autopilot, it will only cause more damage. I don’t know if you saw it, but ‘Jacare’ went out on the ground, was punched and came back, and ate three more strong elbows. And I decided it was better to stop the fight because, in my opinion, Whittaker would only let him come back up to knock him down again and beat him up. To preserve him, who was no longer intelligently defending himself, I decided to stop the fight.”
