In the main fight of the UFC Vegas 25 prelims, strawweight fighters Randa Markos of Canada and Luana Pinheiro of Brazil were set to meet. Markos was looking for a win following four losses in five matches. But in a shocking turn of events, the fight was stopped late in the first round after Markos inadvertently performed an illegal upkick that knocked out Pinheiro giving Pinheiro the win by virtue of Markos’ disqualification.
The fight was action-packed with both fighters coming out strong. But with under a minute left in the first round, Markos was pinned to the ground as Pinheiro punched Markos’ head with a victory seemingly on hand. In an effort to free herself, Markos used her legs to rattle Pinheiro but her feet unfortunately met Pinheiro’s head, twice. Upon review by the doctors, the referee Mark Smith stopped the fight as judges disqualified a visibly disappointed and emotional Markos.
Markos would later on share her thoughts in her Instagram page claiming that Pinheiro flopped. Many fighters and fans were of the same opinion. Former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan took to Twitter in claiming that this was a result of the “Mark Smith curse.” The Russian fighter lost his UFC championship belt and unbeaten streak to Aljamain Sterling in UFC 259 when the famous referee declared a brutal knee strike by Yan illegal. On his part, Sterling responded to the tweet by claiming that Yan’s disqualification was his own doing.
Edited by Aldo Tong
