Last few days Mario Yamasaki received a lot of critics on his performance on UFC Fight Night 125’s Co-main event in Belem, Brazil. He was first criticized by Dana white who called Yamasaki’s performance disgusting. And Dana’s critics was followed by many other UFC and MMA fighters.
What exactly happened is that Mario Yamasaki did not stop the fight on time. Priscila Cachoeira was getting beat by Shevchenko and, according to many, Mario Yamasaki did a very late stoppage.
Mario Yamasaki, defended his decision by saying, “MMA is a contact sport and no fighter likes his fight to be stopped with no chance to revert the result. “
If you’re interested in what happened in that fight and you want to bring your own judge whether it was a late stoppage or not check the video of Shevchenko vs Cachoeira HERE.
Today, Mario Yamasaki decided to breaks silence on this controversy and he gave a statement to MMA fighting:
“During the second round, I signaled to ‘Pedrita’ that if she didn’t move I’d stop the fight, and every time I’d stop, I told her and she moved to try to escape from the punches. Unfortunately, I also can’t control the number of blows thrown — again, when a fighter is trying to come back she’s game.
Fighters go through times of hard effort and dedication to be there. MMA is a contact sport and no fighter likes his fight to be stopped with no chance to revert the result. In my opinion, I allowed Pedrita to be a warrior and keep fighting. I could have stopped the fight in the second crucifix or in the mount, but she moved the whole time.
I also recognize that I should have stopped when she tapped the first time to the rear-naked choke. I only stopped a few seconds later.
About other people’s opinions, it’s their right to say.”
After the fight, UFC made a statement that they will work with Brazil’s athletic commission to avoid another controversial stoppage like this one in the future.
UFC executive David Shaw told reporters the promotion is upset with referee Mario Yamasaki’s performance that night indicating changing referees for future events. He said:
“We’ll be working with the commission to make sure a situation like that doesn’t happen again,” Shaw said after the FS1-televised event at Mangueirinho Gymnasium in Belem, Para, Brazil. “First and foremost, Priscila’s health is the No. 1 priority. We’ve got a team with her at the hospital, and we’ll be taking very good care of her to make sure she recovers quickly.”
