LAS VEGAS – Generally it pays off to look at tape in your opponents.
When Melissa Gatto struck Tamires Vidal within the left breast, the response could have appeared delayed and strange to the skin observer. However Gatto (9-2-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) was properly studied. She’d seen Vidal (7-3 MMA 1-2 UFC) do the very same factor earlier than, pounced for the end, and received by TKO.
“No, after all (I wasn’t stunned) as a result of I watched the final fights of her,” Gatto informed MMA Junkie and different reporters at a post-fight information convention. “All the time she felt that. She all the time tried to cease the struggle however the (referee) stated to me, ‘Don’t cease. You go.’ I’m going and I end. I obtained my victory.”
The truth is, Vidal had achieved the identical factor within the UFC the struggle prior in opposition to Montserrat Rendon. Not like Saturday’s struggle on the UFC Apex, the referee in that struggle, Kerry Hatley, intervened when the blow occurred.
Nonetheless, Chris Tognoni’s choice to let the motion proceed throughout Saturday’s UFC Battle Evening 241 was the suitable name, in response to pioneering regulator and former referee “Large” John McCarthy.
“I really like Kerry Hatley, however the truth that Vidal requires and receives a timeout for a punch to the chest is wrong,” McCarthy wrote on X. “Chris Tognoni dealt with the decision completely when Vidal as soon as once more turned away asking for a timeout. It was a authorized blow, you’re harm and now can’t struggle…… you lose by TKO.”
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— Manpreet (@MMALOTN) Could 18, 2024
With the win, Gatto snapped a two-fight skid. Again transferring in the suitable course, Gatto plans to return to flyweight. The struggle Saturday was a bantamweight bout, and one Gatto took on brief discover.
“I wish to struggle in August within the flyweight division,” Gatto stated. “But when the UFC needs me within the bantamweight division, I’m right here. I’m right here to struggle. I used to be born to struggle.”
For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC Battle Evening 241.
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