Modestas Bukauskas of Lithuania kicks Andreas Michailidis of Greece in their light heavyweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event inside Flash Forum on UFC Fight Island on July 16, 2020 in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
There was a lot of controversy in the air when Modestas Bukauskas defeated Andreas Michailidis
Modestas Bukauskas recently spoke to WERMMA in an exclusive interview to clear the air regarding his win over Andreas Michailidis.
The clash took place at UFC Fight Island with Michailidis taking some heavy elbows to the side of the head. Michailidis was unable to get up and seemed a little wobbly as the first round ended, and Bukauskas was handed the win.
However, there were some questions regarding the legality of the strikes. Those could have been at the back of the head, and Bukauskas was asked what was going through his head when the bell rang:
“I knew I landed some devastating strikes.”
He touched upon people bringing up the controversy of the stoppage but the UFC star wasn’t taking any of it:
“There is nothing weird about it. When a guy is trying to take you down and you are clobbering elbows to the side of the head where it is the perfect spot out.
“We went through it in the changing room beforehand where all the legal shots were. You can see on the video, I can even get a screen shot, you know what I mean?
“It was all clearly legal shots.”
There was also a moment Michailidis almost fell out of the Octagon when a cage door opened to let the coaches in.
Bukauskas also spoke about the door opening and his rival leaning up against it and falling out. However, he still believed his rival was out and the opening of the door didn’t matter:
“Listen, the guy couldn’t stand up, he got asked four or five times by the referee to stand up and go to his corner, and he could not do so.
“The fact that you have to lean up against the cage or whatever, he would have been sitting on the floor anyways not being able to get up or being shaky on his feet. The referee would have stopped it even if the door was closed.”
While Michailidis didn’t get to complete the fight, Bukauskas had a lot of respect for him taking the fight and even moving up to meet the weight clash.
Bukauskas also praised the referee for using his authority well. He claimed that the ref was in the perfect position during the clash and didn’t need any replays to make his decision.
This is an exclusive interview from WERMMA. For more exclusive interviews and content please follow the link.
(Watch) Rafael Fiziev enters the Matrix as he incredibly dodges Marc Diakiese kick
Carla Esparza carries a horrific eyebrow injury in win over Marina Rodriguez
Khamzat Chimaev breaks several UFC records after dominant win over Rhys McKee
Follow our dedicated UFC page for instant UFC news and updates
