Shots After The Bell: Michael Chiesa wasn’t going anywhere before that early stoppage

Hey, everyone! It's another edition of Shots After The Bell, where yours truly pulls the event apart and looks for interesting morsels of discussion packed into all the action. This event had more than its fair share of unique happenings, so let's not hesitate and get right to it, starting with what I'm sure will be the most controversial statement:

Yamasaki Did Nothing Wrong

At this point I'm sure you know I love to throw a referee under the bus, but in this case I have a hard time getting the pitchfork sharpened. Yes, Mario Yamasaki stopped the fight half a second before Michael Chiesa was choked unconscious by Kevin Lee (watch the finish here), but the only thing that changed was us getting to see Chiesa flop limp on the canvas when Lee let him go. There was no heroic Justine Kish escape maneuver stopped mid-execution. Chiesa was too busy travelling through time with that ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ look on his face.

So what really kinda ruined the end of the fight, there? Was it really Yamasaki blowing the call or was it because Chiesa jumped to his feet to tell the ref off rather than admit his goose was cooked? I'm not going to go too hard on Michael. The guy just got choked silly. He probably didn't know his hands had stopped fighting Lee's gable grip and were folding up into the fetal position. But still, his reaction was an unfortunate one that ruined an otherwise satisfying finish.

Should Yamasaki have let Chiesa go out? It would have been better for his reputation, if not the fighter’s safety. But the stoppage is barely any different from the many times referees have to step in and stop fights via TKO just a moment before the losing fighter swore they were going to explode out of that bad position. Maybe they were, but they didn't in time, and it's their own damn fault for letting it get so bad that the referee had to intervene.

S**t Happens

Pants pooping is one of those quiet humiliations that I'm sure no fighter wants to go through. I imagine it happens way more than you'd expect, and its only in the worst cases that you'll see maybe a slight stain on the shorts or a single mysterious smear on the canvas. Not so at UFC Fight Night: Oklahoma, where Justine Kish unleashed what may go down in UFC history as the biggest dook ever dooked in the Octagon.

At least there's a great story tied to the event. Kish was stuck in the kind of rear naked choke few fighters can escape. The referee showed extreme restraint in not stopping to fight half-cocked like a certain other heart hands throwing official. And with impressive explosiveness, Kish managed to spin her body around and turn her neck out of the choke. But that same full body twitch that saved her also betrayed her. Moments later as Herrig transitioned to top position and the two grappled on, brown streaks began to appear on the cage floor.

The final bell rung under 30 seconds later, leaving only a small pool of internet viewers and a horrified UFC cleaner with the knowledge of what had happened. But of course something like this is bound to spread, and by the end of the event I'd wager just as many people were discussing the pooping incident as the controversial main event finish. Props to Justine Kish for owning it:

What The Hell, BJ Penn?

For years, BJ Penn refused to believe that his best days were behind him. Fight after fight he'd reappear, swearing that this time the old BJ would be back, magically recovered via some new training camp voodoo. This time that voodoo involved staying in Hawaii rather than travelling to Jackson-Wink in Albuquerque and calling back up the Marinovich family, who ran his strength and conditioning training back before he lost his lightweight belt to Frankie Edgar in 2010.

Unfortunately for Penn, there's no rolling back the clock in MMA. He's simply too slow to compete at the top of the game any more, and the UFC is currently lowering the caliber of opponent he faces until that idea hits home. Yair Rodriguez was a heavy handed way of saying 'Hey, take a look at the next generation of Penns coming up,' while Dennis Siver was someone prime Penn or even lazy Penn should have been able to beat.

Instead, Siver beat Penn much worse than that majority decision the judges awarded might imply. The third round was a complete route, with a dazed BJ looking like he was one hard shove away from collapsing on the canvas and not getting up.

It's not a great look, but it's one we may have to get comfortable with. Shortly before the Siver fight, Penn declared he planned to continue fighting win or lose, because he simply loves to compete.

For more results from UFC Fight Night: Oklahoma, click here.