Rafa Garcia had no intention of allowing the judges to get involved after he lost a point in the second round due to an illegal strike at UFC Vegas 51.
The point deduction occurred after Garcia attacked Jesse Ronson by kneeing just as the Canadian was standing on the ground. However, the timing of the incident was so close that Mark Smith stopped the contest and called foul on Ronson’s strike.
With Ronson recovering, Smith decided to penalize Garcia for the illegal blow.
Garcia didn’t sulk over the point deduction and he got back to work. He dragged Ronson to the mat to get submissions. Garcia was constantly looking to improve his position, with Ronson doing his best to scramble free, especially after he looked for a moment like he might be falling into a head-and-arm choke.
Instead, Garcia moved to Ronson’s rear, and slipped his elbow under Ronson’s chin. He locked onto the rear-naked choke a fraction of a second later. Ronson grimaced as the submission got tighter and tighter, which led to him tapping out, with the end coming at 4:50 in the second round.
It was an impressive finish from Garcia after controlling the majority of the fight up until the point deduction. In the end, Garcia gets the job done to pick up his second win in a row overall, while Ronson falls to 0-4 with one no contest in the UFC.
