UFC lightweight Justin Gaethje is furious with referee Mike Beltran over his officiating at Gaethje’s clash with Michael Chandler at UFC 268.
The five-round slugfest was a thriller from start to finish, with Gaethje edging a decision win, but he said on the Anik and Florian Podcast that he was “f*cking absolutely astonished” that Beltran allowed an illegal strike to stand. “I hate to critique the guy – he’s human, and we make mistakes.
Gaethje Slams UFC 268 Referee for Million-Dollar Mistake
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.”
Chandler landed a huge punch on Gaethje between the time in which Gaethje indicated he’d been fouled and the referee’s interference, which Justin Gaethje pointed out could have cost him the win and his Fight of the Night payout. “That was a big punch.
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.”
Gaethje believes Beltran behaved as if he wasn’t fouled, failing to react to Gaethje’s insistence that he’d been poked in the eye. Beltran asked Gaethje if he was OK to fight, to which “The Highlight” responded he’d suffered an eye poke. Beltran asked again.
“So in my mind, I think he’s referencing the punch that just occurred. 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.”
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