Justin Gaethje Says Mike Beltran Could Have Cost Him a Million Dollars

[Substance Abuse]

On eye poke incident:

Gaethje on Wednesday blasted Mike Beltran for his handling of Michael Chandler’s accidental foul in the second round of the “Fight of the Year” candidate, saying the veteran official jeopardized his win by indecisively stopping the action and not giving him enough time to recuperate.

“I hate to critique the guy – he’s human, and we make mistakes,” Gaethje said on the Anik and Florian podcast. “I just think that ... pretty much every ref that I step out there with has a look in their eyes, and it’s a look like they’re shook, like they’re intimidated by what just occurred.

“I understand that, but this is real life. I need them to be in game mode. We’re not dealing with seconds anymore. This is way less than seconds. if you’re going to break action, you’ve got to put your body in there. If you’re going to get hit, that needs to be OK.”

Beltran could not immediately be reached for comment.

On being punched after Beltran's indecisiveness:

“That was a big punch,” he said. “What if that would have knocked me out? Those can change the whole direction of a fight. It’s just crazy to me that it wasn’t a big issue, because for me it was a huge issue. That’s $1 million, if I lose, that’s so much money off of my table.”

Once Beltran did stop the action, Gaethje said Beltran behaved as though he hadn’t been fouled, asking him if he was good to continue. When Gaethje responded that he wasn’t and that he’d been poked in the eye, Beltran asked him again if he was OK to continue.

“So in my mind, I think he’s referencing the punch that just occurred,” Gaethje said. “And so, I’m like, yeah, I’m good, because as a fighter, you never say you’re not good to continue. So then he was like, ‘OK, fight.’ I was like, ‘No, I need my time. He poked me in the eye.’ And he looks directly at me and he says, ‘You said you’re good, fight.’ And he never looked at my eye. He didn’t even take one second to see if I was affected.”

On Beltran trying to justify it:

Gaethje said it was “irrelevant” whether or not Beltran saw the foul because he’d already stopped the action and needed to follow procedures for a fouled fighter. In the unified rules of MMA, when a fighter is fouled, the referee is supposed to call time, check the fouled fighters condition and safety and assess the foul for potential point(s) deductions and/or time considerations.

With replay in use at UFC 268, Gaethje said Beltran was perfectly capable of seeing what happened and taking the proper steps to make sure he was OK to continue.

“I just can’t understand how it happened, why it happened, or what the f*ck happened,” Gaethje said.

In the end, Gaethje won the bout via unanimous decision in a fight considered by many to be an instant classic. The eye injury he suffered wasn’t permanent; he felt a “ton of pressure in my eye” but no lasting effects. But there was another sour note afterward after he said Beltran approached him backstage.

“This is why I’m more upset about it is because he tried to justify it,” Gaethje said. “If you would have just accepted that, he f*cked up, then at least I have a picture of why it happened and how it will never happened again. We need to learn from that.”

Link: https://www.mmafighting.com/2021/11...ys-ufc-268-call-could-have-cost-him-1-million

Can't wait to see the shit you guys are going to give Gaethje after that ridiculously entertaining fight, lol.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

I get what he's saying, it's one thing to make a bad decision, it's another to make the right decision then hesitate and have confusion as to what's actually happening

 

[legkicktko]

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

great fight, but Chandler should've def been penalized for that punch.

I think it was more on Beltran, he didn't clearly stop the fight

 

[Madeline Chelsea]

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Way harder to hit and not get hit after your eye gets gouged like this.

Gaethje might have won anyway but this was a big asterisk on his win.

 

[PrinceOfPain]

It did look like a mess on Beltran's part. A potentially costly one for Justin.
He has every right to make a noise about it.

It'd come across differently if he had lost.

 

[Pechan]

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And in the Poirier fight.

 

[NickDiaz]

Ref and Mike fucked up !!

Reffing was poor
&
Mike was dirty for that punch

 

[Substance Abuse]

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I'm glad that fight is this fight.

 

[UFCIsNOTRigged]

Homer Simpson complains about everything.

Islam at least is man enough to show up to his fights and not trash the officials overseeing the bout after the fact.

 

[Reign009]

great fight, but Chandler should've def been penalized for that punch.

No, Mike Beltran should have stepped in between them.

 

[Reign009]

I understand Justin's frustration.

He go poked in the eye, punched because the ref didn't step in between them, then wasn't given any time to recover.

 

[ThinkBig500]

Ref asked him a second time if he was good after the first response was “no I’m not good, he just fucking poked me in the eye”, to which Garth said “yeah I’m good.” Therein lies the problem.

 

[SuperAlly]

Ref asked him a second time if he was good after the first response was “no I’m not good, he just fucking poked me in the eye”, to which Garth said “yeah I’m good.” Therein lies the problem.

Who is this Garth and why does he have any say on the fight.

 

[HavokHarmon]

Yeah honestly Justin makes a good point. This will likely get glossed over since the right guy won in the end but not giving him ANY time to recover was pretty messed up.

 

[Reign009]

Ref asked him a second time if he was good after the first response was “no I’m not good, he just fucking poked me in the eye”, to which Garth said “yeah I’m good.” Therein lies the problem.

Why did he just repeat the same question after Justin just said he wasn't good? Justin explained why he said he was "good" the second time. He thought the ref was referring to the punch and didn't want the fight to be stopped.

 

[The Clark]

It really seems like the refs' focus is on keeping the fights entertaining rather than enforcing the rules. This incident and the eye poke at the end of Usman and Covington's fight both looked pretty bad. Gaethje was spot on here.

 

[Mike]

Reading over what he said, I don't really see where he's wrong.

 

[Portland8242]

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Precisely what popped into my mind too.

Gaethje's a hypocritical fuck.

 

[Dan Torrance]

ok, controversy...