Ketlen Vieira feels Holly Holm tried to ‘neutralize’ as opposed to win, says she felt ‘light tap’ during submission struggle

Ketlen Vieira sees a major difference in how she approached the UFC Vegas 55 main event compared to Holly Holm.

While Vieira believed her offensive actions were deserving of the split-decision win she won on Saturday, Vieira believes that the judges made a wrong call because Holm didn’t do.

“I think she was doing more of an ‘antigame,’ we use that term for soccer,” Vieira said via a Portuguese translator at the evening’s post-fight press conference. She was trying to counter me. Although she was pressing me against my cage, nothing was happening. She just wanted me stop fighting. I believe that judges saw this .

Much of Holm’s strategy was predicated on clinching with Vieira and walking her to the fence, where she looked to land strikes in close. Vieira was more focused on timing hard punches and the exchanges were closer in the middle of the Octagon. Holm is no stranger to winning decisions as she had lost just two in 19 pro bouts heading into Saturday’s card.

In between rounds, Vieira’s coach Andre Pederneiras could be heard on the broadcast expressing his frustration over his fighter’s performance — going as far as to tell her she was down three rounds to one heading into Round 5 — but Vieira said that she welcomes Pederneiras’ motivational tactics.

“He’s constantly like “You’re winning, you’re dropping” in gym. “‘Listen, she’s got this, you’re trailing it.’ And yes, it’s something that he uses to propel us to actually win and to find more, to actually go for a fight, to look for a fight, to look for a win. It works, and he understands that he must use this approach .”

There’s no questioning that Vieira had the most notable offensive maneuver of the fight as she threatened to put Holm away with a standing rear-naked choke in the second round. Vieira held Holm in check and Holm was left with a bruised face.

Vieira explained that her inability to finish the submission was not only because of Holm’s defense, but that she thought for a moment that Holm had tapped out.

” I felt quite good about it and thought she was actually doing a light tapping,” Vieira stated. “I was watching the ref get in closer and I saw him getting close to me. That’s when Vieira said that she may have taken the chance because she looked away from the situation and she ran.

“But God has plans and they cannot be denied .”