The best and worst from UFC 232: Jones vs. Gustafsson 2

#3 Best: Silva de Andrade’s corner work

Douglas Silva de Andrade's corner admirably stopped his fight with Petr Yan due to the damage their fighter had taken

The preliminary fight between Petr Yan and Douglas Silva de Andrade looked set to be one of UFC 232’s most exciting battles, but in the end it turned out to be largely one-sided, as Yan simply punished ‘D’Silva’ throughout the fight with his sharper strikes and once the fight got into the second round, his devastating ground-and-pound.

Once the second round ended, it was clear that Silva de Andrade was pretty badly hurt, bleeding from more than one area on the face, and when his corner attempted to treat his cuts, the Brazilian instantly turned away in pain. And so his corner, seeing no way for their fighter to win, simply called ‘No Mas’ and stopped the fight.

This was a breath of fresh air in a sport which has seen corners force badly hurt fighters to go back out for another round, as we saw in May when a beaten Raquel Pennington continued to fight Amanda Nunes until a merciful 5th round TKO.

The loss takes nothing away from Silva de Andrade – he was simply beaten by a better fighter in Yan – and fighters and fans alike won’t look down on him or his corner for the stoppage. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a shift in MMA towards corners protecting their fighters – not forcing them to continue due to a prevailing macho culture that seems to have been accepted beforehand.