Charles in photo by Carlos Ozório
Against Nik Lentz, Charles do Bronx brought his win tally in MMA to eight. At least for now, since the fight this Sunday at UFC on Versus 4 may get its outcome overturned. This is because, just before sinking the fight-ending choke hold, Charles landed a knee to the face of his opponent who had three limbs touching the ground. Regardless of what the Athletic Commission decides, Bronx and his coach Ericson Cardozo explain the case and do not agree that a no contest should be declared.
“We’ll find out about the commission decision later or tomorrow. There was an illegal knee, but the ref didn’t see it. He could have stopped the fight and discounted a point from Charles, but he let it continue. So the ref is the one who made the mistake. I don’t feel it would be fair to change the result,” opines Ericson.
“You know me, I didn’t do it out of meanness. It happened in the heat of the fight and I asked forgiveness from him and everyone. I feel what determined the fight was the rear-naked choke, I didn’t knock him out with the knee. He kept coming at my leg and I managed to finish. Now I’m waiting on the decision,” Charles told GRACIEMAG.com, before emphasizing that the knee didn’t facilitate his winning.
“Like I said, the knee was not decisive. It caught him in the eye and he kept coming at my legs.”
On the fight:
“In the first round I’d gotten a knockdown on him; he was really tired and I was fine. I trained hard for this fight to recover from my last loss, and unfortunately this happened,” he said in closing.
