Mexico’s Rafa Garcia entered the UFC Octagon at the weekend saying that if he loses, he will likely have to look elsewhere. Although he came to the most famous organization as undefeated, he immediately hit hard and in less than two years he managed to win only two out of five matches.
His opponent Maheshate, an ethnic Kazakh from China, was the exact opposite. He got into the UFC last year through the Dana White Contender Series, and this June he made his debut there with a hard KO in just one minute and fourteen seconds (VIDEO). Now, according to the paper, he had to repeat something similar, after all, he surpassed his opponent by a head.
Right at the beginning, Maheshate used front kicks to the head. Although he did not intervene, he made it clear to Garcia that closing the distance would not be easy. He also gradually added some nice bent knees, but they didn’t do the damage either. The Mexican fighter initially wanted to take the fight to the ground, but after unsuccessful attempts to take him down, he gave up and succeeded with boxing combinations. He hit the Chinese several times in the second half of the first round and the round had to go to his side on points.
The second five-minute period started much more actively. Garcia continued the pressure and hard boxing combinations. Maheshate tried an unorthodox elbow and then hit a jumping knee. But Rafa tied the fight in a clinch at that moment and within a few jolts he breathed a little. But after a while, the Chinese hit a nice front kick to the chin and then an elbow to the side of Garcia’s head. It immediately started spurting blood at regular intervals. A warning sign that an artery has been breached. Less than 4 minutes remained until the end of the round, but the referee let the match continue without interruption.
If you only turned on the match at this part, you would probably just shake your head and guess what happened in the Octagon. Both fighters were covered in blood and at first glance it was not clear who they belonged to. Garcia promoted the fight on the ground, although he got the opponent there several times, but he never kept him there for long, although at times it looked like he was not going to ground and pound, but that did not work. During the last break from the clinch, at least he retaliated with an elbow to the Chinese, which, although it did not cause heavy bleeding, was certainly not pleasant. After the end of the round, it was as if both fighters didn’t even want a break and would prefer to continue without interruption.
During the break, Cutman tried to stop the bleeding with Vaseline, but it was completely unsuccessful and the bloodbath continued in the final third round. In it, Garcia ate two high knees, but for most of the time he eliminated the opponent’s weapons with the help of wrestling, so he went on to win on points.
Mahesat vs. Rafa Garcia source: Profimedia
Garcia’s teammate Cub Swanson, who coached him in the match, said on social media that backstage doctors stopped the bleeding for almost two hours (VIDEO, nothing for more sensitive natures). The tenacious Mexican reportedly lost 20 percent of his blood, but that didn’t stop him from coming to the press conference with a smile. There he admitted that the bleeding in the match did not limit him in any way, but he was afraid that the referee would end the match prematurely.
Although Garcia won in the end, the question is whether the referee should have stopped the match, or at least called a doctor during the break to look at the bleeding wound and assess whether it poses a threat to the wrestler’s health. This could have resulted in a real mess.
