An MMA fighter was horrifyingly choked out and then tapped out by his opponent in the same sequence after a referee failed to notice he was unconscious.
The disturbing scene took place at Fury FC 76 in San Antonio, Texas on Friday evening as Edgar Chairez took on Gianni Vazquez at the event. Chairez, a former contestant on Dana White's Contender Series, was being put through the paces by Vazquez, who holds a record of 8-4, but when the fight took a turn for the worst when the fourth round started.
Chairez locked up a triangle choke on the ground and Vazquez tried his best to escape, opting not to tap to the submission. The Mexican fighter went unconscious whilst in the choke, but referee Frank Collazo failed to realise the fighter could no longer continue. Vazquez was still unconscious and the fight should have been stopped, but Chairez then switched to an armbar and held it for 20 seconds until Vazquez woke up and tapped out.
Fighters and fans have since reacted to the horrifying scene by calling for Collazo to be stripped of his refereeing credentials. UFC flyweight Jeff Molina wrote: "What in the actual f***, never let that man be near any competition setting again." Invicta FC champion tweeted: "Please never let this man referee another fight."
Vazquez's coach Colin Oyama addressed the incident by posting a lengthy statement on Facebook which revealed his fighter suffered potential elbow fractures as a result of the late stoppage. "This ref needs to lose his job and also the idiot inspector who refused to stop the fight even after I asked him to intervene and told him my guy was out. Because of the stupidity, my fighter may have possible fractures in his elbow joint according to the emergency room we went to," he wrote.
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Fury Fighting Championship later released a statement recognising that referee Collazo "failed to protect" Vaquez in the fight. “It is the referee’s job to protect the fighter when the fighter cannot protect him or herself. In last night’s main event, the referee failed to do this,” the promotion stated.
“While the job of a referee is one of the hardest to do in this sport, the need for proper and continued training would help to alleviate things like this incident. We do not hire, train, or select refs for our shows, but we would be more than willing to lead a revamp and overhaul of the reffing and judging selection and training process.”
