‘There were four or five illegal blows’ – ONE Championship CEO addresses Eddie Alvarez’s controversial DQ loss

‘There were four or five illegal blows’ – ONE Championship CEO addresses Eddie Alvarez’s controversial DQ loss

Eddie Alvarez was left distraught after he was disqualified against Iuri Lapicus at ONE on TNT 1. The veteran lightweight landed a few punches to the back of Lapicus’s head, which led the referee to wave off the fight, resulting in a DQ loss. Eddie Alvarez was reeling (in fact he still is) as he struggled to come to terms with the loss.

Speaking about this in a video posted by ONE Championship on Twitter, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong revealed in retrospect that he was pretty clear that the blows from Eddie were illegal, however, he maintained that the veteran fighter didn’t mean it.

‘I know Eddie Alvarez definitely didn’t mean to do it‘

Sityodtong can be seen saying, “Eddie, the problem is that there were four or five illegal blows. We reviewed it three times. Eddie didn’t have visibility because I know Eddie definitely didn’t mean to do it.” [via MMA Fighting]

FS Video

However, Eddie thought otherwise, as he then revealed at the post-fight conference, saying, “I went back to my room and I was able to watch the clip of the fight, and see everything and it was a bad call on the referee’s side. The American media is in uproar right now and so are the American fans. I’m going to respectfully ask them to look back at the video and reverse that call.” [via MMA Fighting]

The MMA world was also left with mixed opinions, as this call was deemed controversial by a lot of media outlets and professional fighters. What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with Chatri Sityodtong’s take on Eddie’s disqualification? Or is the former UFC lightweight champion right?

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