Fight to Win officials came under fire yesterday after the video of Vagner Rocha Sparta Kicking AJ Agazarm went viral.
The match was initially continued because Fight To Win Promoter Seth Daniels said:
But the community outcry was almost universal, regardless of intentions and how hard they both trained such a clear violation should be punished.
Vagner Rocha released this statement on his Instagram:
So I’ve spent a good amount of time thinking about what I did yesterday, and at the end of the day I’m not sure how I feel. I go to a competition (fight) where my opponent has told everyone he’ll strangle me unconscious and use my body as a raffle prize for people to pose and take pictures with; and this is not the first time he has disrespected me! Some people may not understand the kill or be killed mentality of a fighter in that situation. Emotions run high and the testosterone is flowing, which is not always resultant in the best decision making. I could have kept it on the mat the whole time and feel that a one second decision does not define the match that lasted ten minutes. I do feel extremely bad for the Stolberg family at the table that I pushed AJ into and publicly apologize to them and will contact them personally to apologize.
Reaction from AJ’s coaches mirrored this – Agazarm’s coaches were very close to getting in an altercation with Seth Daniels following loss (by decision).
Daniels later added:
“Given the circumstances I stand by my decision to calm down the fighters and allow the match to continue. This was an unprecedented situation. Moving forward, any intentional striking or shoving out of bounds will result in automatic disqualification.”
“In my opinion it was the right decision to allow the match to continue and let the tensions be settled with chokes, armbars and sweeps rather then a fist fight in the parking lot where weapons or other altercations could have occurred between the two and their fans.”
Here’s the official announcement of the overturn:
You can watch the whole event on Flograppling.com
