Kevin Lee Submits Michael Chiesa At UFC OKC--What's The Controversy?

Kevin Lee Submits Michael Chiesa At UFC OKC--What's The Controversy?

Kevin Lee controversially submitted Michael Chiesa at UFC: Oklahoma City. Here's why that does--and doesn't--matter.

Jun 26, 2017 by Hunter Homistek
Kevin Lee Submits Michael Chiesa At UFC OKC--What's The Controversy?
Kevin Lee submitted Michael Chiesa Sunday night at UFC Fight Night 112 in Oklahoma City, and MMA fans lost their damn minds. 

Rightfully so. 

The 24-year-old Detroit native extended his winning streak to five, but it was how--or when, rather--victory was earned that turned heads and sent thumbs crashing to Twitter. 

Sensing Chiesa went unconscious, referee Mario Yamasaki intervened, causing Lee to release his rear-naked choke attempt late in Round 1 of their main event. Chiesa popped right up, immediately voicing his displeasure with his stoppage. 

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Those feelings didn't change post-fight after watching some replays and digesting the loss, either, a point Chiesa made abundantly clear. 

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Chiesa isn't wrong. Yamasaki made the wrong call here 100 percent. That is undeniable. 

While what Yamasaki saw is obvious--Chiesa stopped hand fighting, his legs appeared to stiffen, and his hands dropped and flapped near his chest as if he went to sleep--the protocol he followed to stop the fight was all wrong. 

It's one thing to prematurely stop a fight where a fighter is receiving blow after blow, appearing to be unconscious from strikes. Those are potentially devastating strikes in the present and in the future, and referees getting trigger happy in those events--while still not awesome--is more understandable. 

In the event of a choke, however, the damage is much less severe. The anatomy of a chokeout is this: A fighter restricts blood flow to the other fighter's brain by applying pressure, usually directly to the carotid artery. 

It sounds scary, but according to experts

It takes several minutes of lack of blood flow to the brain (somewhere in the range of four-to-six minutes) before permanent damage to the brain is likely to occur. If fans believe that a choke was held for roughly 10 seconds after a fighter has lost consciousness, the brain has likely been without adequate blood flow for approximately 20 seconds (remember that it took roughly 10 seconds for the fighter to go to sleep).

Chiesa appeared to be asleep for roughly one to two seconds before Yamasaki intervened. He may not have been asleep at all. 

This fight easily could've gone another 10 seconds, 20 seconds, or even--if Dr. Johnny Benjamin is correct in the article linked above--the full 40-ish seconds left in the round, and Chiesa would've been fine. Making matters worse, Yamasaki needed to at least check Chiesa's arm for signs of life. Going off a visual cue along was irresponsible, something UFC President Dana White made abundantly clear. 
 
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Chiesa deserved the opportunity to continue to fight it--or to go out on his shield. This was a disservice to the work he put in preparing for this bout and the countless hours of training he'd done to reach this point in a UFC main event at all. 

So Yamasaki messed up. That's clear, yeah? Good. Here's part two:

It ultimately wouldn't have mattered. 


Kevin Lee talks of his back control with great pride. Ever since he couldn't finish the maneuver against Al Iaquinta in his UFC debut, it's an area of his game he's honed to the max. Recently, he told us he's specifically studied with Demian Maia and Robert Drysdale to become a finishing machine from that position. 

It's shown. In his last four fights (Chiesa included), Lee used that position to finish the fight, notching three rear-naked chokes and a TKO stoppage from the back. He's a monster there. 

But fans still aren't convinced, largely because we witnessed an escape from certain death in that same position literally a couple fights earlier. 

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The difference here is crucial. Justine Kish, getting choked by Felice Herrig, continually fought her opponent's hands and squirmed to escape the position. Her attempts to wriggle free were obvious. Chiesa, whether in a plan to escape or not, did appear to go limp, and he did appear to stop fighting Lee's hands. 

Lee noticed. 

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The horrible part here is that, while I firmly believe Chiesa was seconds away from taking an indisputable nap on the canvas, Yamasaki ruined the moment. Chiesa was rightfully pissed. Lee now has an asterisk on his victory. 

In MMA, sometimes a split-second can make all the difference, and fans across the globe were robbed of finality on an otherwise hot-fire matchup hurtling toward finality.