A clip has emerged online of the horrifying moment an MMA fighter was choked out and then tapped out by his opponent after a referee failed to notice he was unconscious.
The contest between Edgar Chairez and Gianni Vazquez at Fury FC 76 in Texas ended when the latter tapped out following a 20-second armbar.
But just moments before, Chairez, a former contestant on Dana White's Contender Series, had Vasquez locked in a triangle choke resulting in the Mexican becoming unconscious. Referee Frank Collazo failed to realise the condition of Vazquez and so the fight was allowed to continue when it should have been stopped immediately.
The disturbing clip then shows Chairez consoling his opponent in the aftermath with many fans and fighters alike swiftly taking to social media to express their concern for Vasquez’s safety as well as their criticism of Collazo.
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“I seriously thought he was gonna die, if he hadn't have switched to the armbar he may have,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another added: “Dang, that was hard to watch.”
Former MMA fighter Mike Pierce posted: “This ref needs to step away from the sport. That was terrible.”
While UFC flyweight Jeff Molina wrote: "What in the actual f***, never let that man be near any competition setting again."
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Following the incident, Fury Fighting Championship released a statement acknowledging that the referee had "failed to protect" Vasquez in the fight.
“It is the referee’s job to protect the fighter when the fighter cannot protect him or herself. In last night’s main event, the referee failed to do this.
“While the job of a referee is one of the hardest to do in this sport, the need for proper and continued training would help to alleviate things like this incident. We do not hire, train, or select refs for our shows, but we would be more than willing to lead a revamp and overhaul of the reffing and judging selection and training process.”
Meanwhile, Vazquez's coach Colin Oyama posted a lengthy statement on Facebook in which he revealed the fighter suffered a potential elbow fracture resulting from the late stoppage.
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He wrote: "This ref needs to lose his job and also the idiot inspector who refused to stop the fight even after I asked him to intervene and told him my guy was out. Because of the stupidity, my fighter may have possible fractures in his elbow joint according to the emergency room we went to."
Topics: UFC, Dana White
George Nash