Volkanovski: Ortega Wasn’t Answering Ref Between Rounds

Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega had a rather epic fight over the weekend – but even though the fight went the full distance it probably shouldn’t have. The incredibly suspect part of it happened at the end of round 3. Ortega got hit in a particularly bad barrage of punches that had him laying on the floor as the buzzer went off – and he seemed rather incoherent. In fact, if you watched closely you could see Herb Dean was questioning if to call it a day once the buzzer went and Ortega seemed unable to get up.

In fact later Ortega seemed unaware he was being offered water and did breathing exercises instead of taking a sip:

 

Volkanovski definitely has a point. There was extra time given to Ortega to get in there and recover – and honestly this was a mistake to begin with. Dean should’ve called it at the end of the round instead of letting the fight go on.