Rafa Garcia had no intention of allowing the judges to get involved after he lost a point in the second round due to an illegal strike at UFC Vegas 51.
The point deduction came after Garcia blasted Jesse Ronson with a knee just as the Canadian was getting up off the canvas, but the timing was close enough that referee Mark Smith paused the contest while calling foul on the strike.
With Ronson recovering, Smith decided to penalize Garcia for the illegal blow.
Rather than sulk about the point deduction, Garcia went right back to work, dragging Ronson down to the mat and working for submissions. Garcia was constantly looking to improve his position, with Ronson doing his best to scramble free, especially after he looked for a moment like he might be falling into a head-and-arm choke.
Instead, Garcia transitioned to Ronson’s back, where he quickly slipped his arm under the chin and locked on the rear-naked choke just a split second later. Ronson grimaced as the submission got tighter and tighter, which led to him tapping out, with the end coming at 4:50 in the second round.
It was an impressive finish from Garcia after controlling the majority of the fight up until the point deduction. In the end, Garcia gets the job done to pick up his second win in a row overall, while Ronson falls to 0-4 with one no contest in the UFC.
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