UFC star Justin Gaethje attacked Mike Beltran, claiming that he made a mistake that could have cost him $1MILLION.
After his crushing win over Michael Chandler at UFC 268, the American commentator said so.
Justin Gaethje wasn't happy with the refereeing in his victory over Michael Chandler
Gaethje fought three rounds against his lightweight opponent, but the 32-year old believes the bout could have ended in the opposite direction.
Inadvertently, Chandler poked Gaethje in her eye in the second. Beltran tried to notify him.
The ref paused the fight, giving Chandler an opportunity to connect with a big punch that Gaethje claimed could have knocked out Chandler.
After the fight, Gaethje of 23-3 was furious.
He said this to the Anik and Florian podcast: “I think that, pretty much all refs that I step out on that field with has a stare in their eyes, and that's a look that's shaking, like they are intimidated by what just happened.
"I get that. But this is real life. They must be in game mode. These are not seconds any more. This is way more than seconds.
"If you want to break action, then you have to put your body there. You must be prepared to take a hit if you want to win.
"That was a powerful punch. "What if that would have knocked you out?
These can alter the direction of a fight. It was insane to me that this wasn't a major issue.
"That's $1million. If I lose, that's so many dollars off my table."
Later in the fight, things became confused when Beltran finally paused to check Gaethje.
Gaethje replied that he wasn’t sure why he was asking.
"WHAT THE F*** HAPPENED?"
He said: "So in mine mind, I believe he's referring to the punch that just happened.
"And so, it's like, yeah, I am good. Because as a fighter you never say you aren't good enough to continue.
"Then, he was like, "OK, fight."
"I was like, "No, I need to take my time. He poked me in my eye'.
"He looks straight at me and says, 'You said that you were good, fight.
"He never even looked at my eye. He didn't take a second to check if my eye was affected.
"I don't know how it happened or why it happened.
Beltran spoke with Gaethje about the incident after the fight, but insists he didn't make any mistakes.
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He said, "This is why it's so upset is because he tried justify it.
"If you would just accept that, he ***** up. Then at least I have a picture about why it happened and how it will never happen again.
"We must learn from it."
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