On a busy weekend in MMA, no moment caused more controversy than referee Mike Beltran’s decision to wave off the flyweight championship clash between Juliana Velasquez and Liz Carmouche.
Carmouche claimed the title when she landed a takedown, moved to the mounted crucifix position and began dropping elbows on her opponent late in Round 4 of the Bellator 278 headliner on Friday night. Though the strikes didn’t appear to be especially damaging, Velasquez had no means to defend herself in the period’s waning seconds, which prompted Beltran to step in on her behalf at the 4:47 mark.
Velasquez immediately protested the ruling in the aftermath of the bout. While action was limited in the initial three rounds, the ex-champ dropped her adversary in the second round and was ahead on all three judges’ scorecards.
“What an odd night!!” Velasquez wrote on Instagram. “I dominated the fight, I dropped her twice on her ass, judges had me up 3-0 and the fight is stopped just like that? She didn’t even put a scratch on my face! I have no idea what the referee saw, but this was a total bulls—t! Come on!!! I am disgusted! [Scott Coker], [Bellator MMA] let’s run it back. And I want this result overturned.”
Not surprisingly, Carmouche disagreed with Velasquez and felt that Beltran acted in the best interest of the losing fighter.
“I think he stepped in at the right time,” Carmouche said during the Bellator 278 post-fight press conference. “I think if he let it continue, it could’ve been a broken orbital. It could’ve been her going unconscious. I think when he stepped in, it was the right thing to do to protect the fighter.”
Coker, meanwhile, took a diplomatic approach when weighing in on Beltran’s ruling.
“I would never want to be a referee or judge,” he said. “That’s something that, hey, those guys are professionals of what they do at the highest level. We travel with the A-crew. He saw it how he saw it, and that’s something that you should ask him next time you see him.”
While Coker refused to criticize the officiating in the bout, he does seem open to the idea of an immediate rematch between Carmouche and Velasquez.
“For me, I don’t mind running that fight back,” Coker said. “I think the ladies would definitely scrap again. To me, I don’t mind running that fight back. Believe me, I’m getting calls from the manager and this, but there’s really nothing we can do. The fight is over. It’s already done. Let’s move on. It’s something that we’ll have conversations with both of them when we get back. Then we’ll start building the future for both ladies.”
Carmouche has won four consecutive fights since signing with Bellator after parting ways with the UFC, while Velasquez suffered her first career defeat in 13 professional outings.
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