MMA analyst Chael Sonnen has given his thoughts on the stoppage in the UFC Nashville main event between Derrick Lewis and Tallison Teixeira.
As we know, Derrick Lewis was able to defeat Tallison Teixeira via TKO in the very first round at UFC Nashville. However, the stoppage was considered to be controversial by some, with many believing that Teixeira would've been able to continue. He was, however, grabbing the fence on his way back up to his feet.
In a recent video, Chael Sonnen weighed in on the Derrick Lewis vs Tallison Teixeira controversy with an interesting point of view.
Chael Sonnen’s view on Derrick Lewis vs Tallison Teixeira stoppage
“You have to watch the ending of that fight, fairly closely to see this. But there is a clear rule infraction not once, but twice, with the grabbing of the fence,” Sonnen said.
“It changed the position, got him back up to his feet. A lot of times a referee will let an exchange finish and then make a ruling. Not in a case like that when you lose position, the ref has to step in right then and put Teixeira down, put the Black Beast on top of him, and they’ll continue from there. I don’t think he intended to call that a TKO, I don’t think he intended to stop that fight.
“My own conspiracy, but I believe he was stopping the action to offer discipline, 1 point for the fence grab. Derrick starts celebrating, crowd starts reacting…all the makings of a TKO and my own belief is that they just went with it. I believe that’s what I saw! They called it an early stoppage because, well yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be a stoppage.”
Quotes via Bloody Elbow
Do you agree? Let us know, fight fans.