Kevin Lee came out the winner in his much hyped UFC Fight Night 112 battle against Michael Chiesa last night (Sun., June 25, 2017), but it wasn’t without controversy. The back-and-forth Lightweight battle between the two will largely be remembered in negative fashion because of an early stoppage on the part of referee Mario Yamasaki. Lee had Chiesa’s back coming into the last minute of the round and sunk a deep choke under Chiesa’s neck. After Chiesa pried off a hand, Lee switched to a gable grip choke and seemed to have Chiesa dead to rights.
Chiesa started fading into unconsciousness, but before he was out the ref stepped in and stopped things at 4:37. Chiesa jumped up to his feet complaining, and the fight went from being a satisfying fast-paced one round war to a bit of a clusterf**k. But, let’s be clear here: Chiesa was probably done. The call was definitely early, but did it actually change the outcome of the fight (or more specifically, how the choke would have ended)? Probably not. Still, that isn’t going to erase the bad taste in the mouths of many fans who stayed up to finish this event.
For more results from UFC Fight Night 112 click here.