“It was not an accident,” Chael Sonnen believes Yair Rodriguez’s win was a submission over Brian Ortega at UFC Long Island


“It was not an accident,” Chael Sonnen believes Yair Rodriguez’s win was a submission over Brian Ortega at UFC Long Island

Brian Ortega vs Yair Rodriguez- Chael Sonnen

Many would’ve concluded what we saw and that Yair Rodriguez won over Brian Ortega due to doctor stoppage resulting from Ortega’s shoulder dislocation. But MMA legend Chael Sonnen thinks otherwise. Rodriguez fought Ortega, who are friends by the way, for an assurance of a title shot if Rodriguez beats Ortega which he did. However, in the moment of the opening round, Rodriguez grabbed one of Ortega’s arms when he was down with Ortega trying to be on the top and as Ortega was trying to get free of Rodriguez’s hold, popped the shoulder.

Now Rodriguez said that he would give Ortega his rematch since he also believes that the fight ended with an anti-climatic move, but also believes that he should be next in line for the title shot. Fair enough to say, even though Rodriguez had just 2 fights on his return after 3 years, Rodriguez proved his stock to be worth pitching for a championship fight. Rodriguez fights in the featherweight and the current champion of the division is Alexander Volkanovski.

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Chael Sonnen says he is open to know how Yair Rodriguez didn’t defeat Brian Ortega via submission

Yair Rodriguez
Yair Rodriguez

In one of the videos of his Youtube channel, Chael Sonnen questions the athletic commission’s decision of ruling out Rodriguez-Ortega scrap as a doctor stoppage when what he saw was rather a successful submission attempt by Rodriguez and found the win to be less contentious and more legit.

“Dana White who told him [Rodriguez] allegedly with a victory, that you will be fighting for a title shot. Well he got a victory, but of course, none of us thought it was gonna be a freak accident. Was it a freak accident guys?” asks Sonnen.

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“He grabbed an arm… he then damaged that arm… sometimes, it’s helpful to turn to the fighters [and say] ‘hey do you guys know what happened?’ and when they both tell the same story, now we got it. Brian Ortega himself said his [Rodriguez’s] grip on the arm was tight, it dislocated. How is this not a submission? I am open to being wrong guys… but tell me what part I got wrong?” asks Sonnen.

What do you make of Sonnen’s assessment? Do you agree with him? Who do you think should Rodriguez fight next since Volkanovski will be out for a while as he recovers from his hand injury? Currently, someone with as strong of an argument to fight for the title as Rodriguez is Josh Emmett, who’s coming off a huge win over Calvin Kattar. Do you think Rodriguez and Emmett should fight each other for the interim title while Volkanovski recovers and gets his chance for second belt in the lightweight division?

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