Vissa tycker att det ser ut som att Cortney Casey verkligen blev träffad i huvudet, andra inte. Men Casey försvarar sig.
Det var i den tredje ronden i matchen på UFC Fight Night 100: Bader vs. Nogueira i São Paulo i lördags som Claudia Gadelha (14-2) sparkade mot Cortney Caseys (6-4) huvud. Det råder sedan dess delade meningar om huruvida sparken träffade henne eller inte.
Domaren valde att tillfälligt avbryta matchen men gav ingen varning till Gadelha. Cristiano Sampaio från den brasilianska MMA-kommissionen (CABMMA) berättade för MMA Fighting att han ansåg att domaren agerade rätt. Casey fick veta detta först när hon kom hem till Maui och nu har hon svarat på kritiken i en intervju med MMA Fighting.
”I wasn’t thinking any of that. In my head, I’m thinking this is a ‘no-contest.’ I’m not going to go out like that. That’s not me at all. As I’m reading all these things saying I was trying to get out of a fight, I was like, I was never in a fight to begin with. This wasn’t a fight. I came out completely unscathed, no problem other than the bump on my head [from the kick]. It wasn’t a fight. It was me getting taken down, me pressuring her, her shooting on me, her laying on me, doing nothing.
”I could fight tomorrow if they needed me to. Yeah, I lost 30-27 on the scorecards. But it wasn’t a fight. I wasn’t getting beaten up like [Antonio Rogerio] Nogueira. There was no need for me to try and get an out. And I wanted an out, then why would I tell the doctor I was fine to continue? That wasn’t going through my head at all.”
Hon fortsätter hävda att hon inte fejkade denna händelse. Då hon anser detta så har hon inte kunnat tänka sig att denna händelse skulle få sådana här reaktioner.
”Never in a million years did I think that I’d go into Brazil and get as ridiculed as I did for something where I did nothing wrong.”
”I can only imagine what Ronda [Rousey] goes through — like, the ridicule she goes through on a daily basis. It’s pretty pathetic. People that don’t even follow me going on my page just to say some shit, going out of their way. And I’m not even complaining. I’m not petitioning.”
När matchen var slut så insåg Casey ganska snabbt att någonting var fel då hon klev ut ur oktagonen och hörde en diskussion.
”Literally as soon as I stepped out of the cage, it was argument. I really didn’t know what was going on when it happened. I knew I got hit in the head, and I was dazed a little bit. I was just trying to regain my composure because I knew it was the third round, and that’s kind of when we were implementing the game plan, drawing her into a brawl and trying to get her a little bit gassed. And then I got kicked in the head.
”The only thing I remember ever being said to me was the doctor coming in and saying, ‘you can continue,’ and I just said, ‘yes, I can continue.’ I heard my cornerman telling me, ‘take your five, take your five,’ and that was it.”
Casey har sagt att Gadelha bad om ursäkt flera gånger, något Gadelha har erkänt men att hon gjorde det av en annan anledning. Men Casey tror att detta kan vara till hennes fördel.
”She apologized right away, like when we started the round again she apologized. After the fight, she came up to me, before they announced that she was the winner, she apologized to me.”
”I went into the back, and normally the doctor’s pop over to check you out. Literally my gloves got cut off, the hand wraps got cut off, and the lady said, ‘here you’ve got 30 days if there’s any problem, sign here,’ and she left. That was it. Then I hear outside, as I’m waiting for my paperwork from the UFC to sign that, my check and stuff, I hear Robert and Tiago [Okamura] yelling back and forth in Portuguese to someone. And as I was leaving, they said, ‘she faked it, she faked it.’ The bump on my head was pretty big at that point. So I walked away, and the UFC interviewer was like, what happened?”
Hon kan inte förstå varför Gadelha inte gjorde något då det var flera stycken som hörde Gadelhas ursäkt.
”Again, she was completely apologetic through the whole thing. So I knew she knew. So I went up to her, no hard feelings, and said I’ll see you at Power MMA. She said, ‘oh, you train there?’ and I explained to her that’s where I’m originally from and that’s where I train when I’m in town. And she’s like, ‘I’m really sorry about kicking you in the head.’ And my coaches are around, and everyone is hearing her say this. And as I’m walking down the stairs I was like, I really wish she would just say something, like I did kick her in the head.’”
Även om det var en tråkig förlust så är det inte själva förlusten i sig som är det värsta utan det är att alla ställer sig frågande till hennes person.
”The whole bun thing, it hit your hair, it hit this, it hit that — it’s my word against the media, against everyone. I can only do so much.
”At the end of the day, I got kicked. I’m not asking for a point deduction, I was never saying that the fight should be overturned, none of that. So I don’t know why everyone is yelling at me, and blaming me, like I’m going out saying all this stuff. I haven’t said anything, other than I got kicked in the head.
”For people to question my character after all that, and then after them knowing that no one else wanted to take this fight against Gadelha, for them to tell me I was trying to get an out? It sucks.”
Tycker du att Casey får oförtjänt kritik eller är den befogad?
Omslagsbild: Mazdak Cavian
