Ion Cutelaba was furious after what he felt was a premature stoppage in his loss to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC Norfolk on Saturday night.
Cutelaba was hurt by Ankalaev and appeared to be wobbly about 30 seconds into the fight, which led referee Kevin McDonald to step in and stop the bout.
Here’s how it looked:
What do you make of the stoppage in this #UFCNorfolk fight? pic.twitter.com/ijjGwoVjbj
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 1, 2020
Cutelaba had just thrown a huge right hand and landed a counter punch when McDonald stepped in. He appeared to be able to still attack and defend himself, which made the stoppage premature.
There are also questions about whether or not Cutelaba was trying to bait Ankalaev by acting more hurt than he was. Ankalaev thought the stoppage was good because he felt he hurt Cutelaba and had his opponent wobbly. What else would you expect him to say?
Cutelaba was upset with the result and made that known in his interview with ESPN.
I don’t know if I’ve ever interviewed a fighter post-fight more upset than Ion Cutelaba just now. Check the ESPN post show after the event to hear what he had to say. pic.twitter.com/s7tvILjnEO
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) March 1, 2020
Cutelaba is now 15-5 (1 no contest) and has lost two of his last three fights. He had a very good reason for being upset.
