“I think I should have won that fight.”
UFC featherweight fighter Kyle Nelson (32-Canada) reflects on his fight with “Korean Superboy” Doo Ho Choi (32).
Nelson and Doo Ho Choi exchanged punches in a featherweight bout at UFC Fight Night at UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, in February. The result was a draw.
One of the three judges saw it 29-27 in favor of Doo Ho Choi, but the other two scored it 28-28, leaving the fight a draw.안전놀이터
At the time, many people in Korea criticized the decision. It was widely believed that Choi Doo-ho was the dominant fighter in the first round, mixing kicks and punches. However, in the middle of the third round, Choi’s head collided with Nelson’s face and the referee stopped the fight. The referee ruled it a headbutt and awarded a one-point deduction, but UFC President Dana White called the fight “a win for Doo Ho” at the time.
Nelson recently told the publication, “The judges were even. I think I probably won the first round because I took Doo Ho Choi’s back position in the first round and applied the choke. I landed a powerful overhand right on him in the second round that caused him to wobble a bit on the fence, so I think I probably won the second round with that as well. The third round wasn’t so good. He defended my takedowns and I thought maybe he won the third round,” he elaborated.
Pointing out ‘fouls’ “There was a headbutt, and the referee pointed out that Doo Ho Choi grabbed my glove. “Chairman White said Superboy won the match and he was going to give him a victory bonus, and that was interesting to me. Usually, Mr. White says that if it goes to a decision, it’s the fighter’s fault. He’s always very adamant with his fighters, “Don’t leave it up to the judges. But this one went to a decision, and in that situation, he picked the winner, so it was interesting.”
At the time, the referee’s decision to stop the match for a ‘headbutt’ left fans puzzled. For one thing, it wasn’t “intentional. Nelson disagreed: “I think it was a point deduction because there were two previous warnings, and I can understand that a lot of fans only saw the headbutt and thought it was too much to deduct for one headbutt. But I think the referee had already warned Doo Ho Choi several times, so he combined them all together and gave him a point deduction.”
Nelson, while somewhat bitter, was also respectful of Choi, calling him “a really good fighter.” “I like to fight as often as I can. Whoever the UFC gives me (as an opponent) is good. If I can fight Doo Ho Choi again, that would be great. But if I don’t, I’m fine with that.”
After fighting Doo Ho Choi in February, Nelson followed up with a decision victory over the Break Builder four months later in June, and now faces Fernando Padilla at UFC on FOX 17: Grasso vs. Shevchenko 2.
“Padilla is a great fighter. He’s very tall for a featherweight at 6-foot-5,” he said, adding, “I’ve fought at lightweight, and I’ve fought against tall guys like Jai Herbert. I know how to fight taller opponents. I’m going to use the same strategy against Padilla that I used against them.”
His opponent, Padilla, is now a one-fight UFC veteran. Still, the “underdog” is Nelson. “I don’t really care about (the ratings). I’m always the underdog. Even in my last fight, I was the underdog, and I won. I don’t really pay attention to the odds.” “I’m going to finish him by TKO late in the first round. I’ll probably finish it with standing strikes,” he said, confident of victory.