Heavyweight Marcos Rogerio de Lima scored the biggest win of his UFC career at UFC Vegas 42, unfortunately, it did not come without some controversy. Although it had nothing to do with the Brazilian’s performance, the bout was marred by yet another hesitant stoppage from veteran referee Herb Dean.
In an interview with Ag Fight, ‘Pezao’ explained he did not feel Herb’s first touch on his back in the heat of the moment while he trained to finish Ben Rothwell. In fact, had ‘Big Ben’ not gone down, which led to a harder intervertion from Dean’s part, Rogerio’s only plan was to keep on hitting his opponent.
“I did not feel Herb Dean touch me. The only thing I heard was his request to stop. Rothwell was grappling me, I had locked in a guillotine and I looked at Herb, thinking ‘Do I stop or not?’. I don’t know if he thought that Rothwell was going to recover. I don’t think so, because I was willing to end the fight right then. I didn’t feel him touch me, I only heard him ask me to stop and I did. Anyone who watched the fight could see that he (Ben) was already limp. I felt that he was limp and it was only a matter of time.”
“I was going to keep swinging.” Lima continued. “I didn’t get hurt in the exchange. Two of his shots got through, but mine were really fast and powerful. The fight was going to end at any point. It’s good that they stopped it sooner, to preserve his physical integrity. Still, I think that my last punch broke his nose. The moment I locked in the guillotine, it was only so I could fall on top of him. I went to the ground because I was going to rain down elbows and punches. He was only going to eat more shots.”
The win over Rothwell put Lima (19-7-1) on a two-fight winning streak, with a unanimous decision win over Maurice Greene prior to UFC Vegas 42, back in May. The 36-year-old’s last loss happened in November 2020, when he got submitted by rising prospect Alexander Romanov.
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