Exactly.
That’s my biggest issue with the Aljo situation. That knee was so blatant and so well placed that it would’ve been completely unfair to give him 5 minutes and then start again. The ref should have ended that quickly and all controversy would have been avoided. I have no problem with Yan getting stripped either because that was easily one of the dumbest moves I’ve ever seen in a UFC fight, let alone a champ doing that in a title fight. Yan had that fight in the bag and basically screwed himself.
I believe Aljo was definitely hurt badly initially, but eventually hammed it up because the ref took his sweet time calling the fight. And I’m not even mad at him for hamming it up either. That dude has worked his entire career to get to that title shot, gets it, was kinda getting handled, and then catches a crazy illegal knee. So now you tell that guy, I know you just got blasted illegally and could possibly be concussed or at the very least in much worse shape than you previously were, but go ahead and get up and keep fighting this guy that was already whippin your *** prior to illegally kneeing you. And after he finishes whippin your ***, good luck on getting back to a title fight again. Nah **** that. I’m not mad at him.
And it’s definitely the smart play too. At the very least he gets another training camp to try a different strategy, plus champ pay. It makes sense on every logical level for him to end the fight that way. And Yan might be one of my favorite new fighters but that was just dumb as ****, he gotta eat that one.