UFC Fight Night 169: Massive controversy in unusual fight between Ion Cutelaba and Magomed Ankalaev

There are certain fights that can stir controversy and cause a lot of confusion, perhaps due to pre-fight antics, a terrible stoppage, or even both. Both these things happened on the third fight of the UFC Norfolk main card.

With Ion Cutelaba fighting, excitement was virtually guaranteed. However, things didn't work out as he hoped. Before the fight, Bruce Buffer's announcement of the two fighters saw Cutelaba up his intensity and go towards Magomedov Ankalaev and clinch him before the fight even began!

The security had to separate the two, with the referee reminding them that they're getting paid to fight each other. It started and the two men wasted no time in trading shots, with the Russian Ankalaev landing the cleaner shots.

It was a right hook counter and a head kick that ended up catching Cutelaba and he repeated this, with Cutelaba visibly wobbly-legged. He ate a couple of more shots and swung blindly to no avail.

For some reason, the referee seemed to think that he had enough and pushed him away, controversially stopping the fight. The crowd booed relentlessly and post-fight, Ankalaev indicated at not doing anything wrong and was more than welcoming of a possible rematch.

What do you make of the stoppage in this #UFCNorfolk fight? pic.twitter.com/ijjGwoVjbj

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 1, 2020

This was undoubtedly a bad stoppage. We hope that they run it back. Brett Okamoto interviewed Cutelaba after the fight and said that he was highly upset:

I don’t know if I’ve ever interviewed a fighter post-fight more upset than Ion Cutelaba just now. Check the ESPN post show after the event to hear what he had to say. pic.twitter.com/s7tvILjnEO

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) March 1, 2020