Diego Chaves Gets DQ’d in a Strange Referee Decision, Making Brandon Rios the W

A bad taste, that’s what the Brandon Rios win by DQ over Diego Chaves left everyone with. The fight started out as a war between two fighters that perhaps don’t show much technique but usually provide entertaining fights. But what started out as an action packed fight, soon became a rough and ugly brawl.

Referee Vic Drakulich tried to gain control of the fight and the first point deduction came in the third round for Diego Chaves. Grabbing, low-blows, rabbit punches, you name it, this fight had it all, and they came from both fighters.

Rios got a point deduction in round 5.

Drakulich warned both fighters several times, the fighters and their corners were not happy with him and constantly complained. Another deduction came in round 7 again for the Argentinian. In round 8 it turned into an MMA fight, both went down, the fans were not happy. Then in round 9 after a grabbing session Vic Drakulich stepped in and separated the fighters, sent Chaves to a corner and waved his hands in the air… Huh?! That’s what the majority wondered… even Chaves shrugged and you could see the confusion in his face.

The referee had stopped the fight 1:26 of round nine. Chaves was disqualified and Rios declared the winner, much to the amazement of everyone watching. The scorecards through round 8 had Chaves winning in two cards by one point. Rios was up by one point on the other card. Rios didn’t make it to the press conference he was rushed to the hospital complaining about an apparent eye injury and dizziness.

The boxing commission later said Drakulich had warned the corner several times and the DQ came for using the forearm to rake across the eyes. A controversial decision by the referee that ended up putting another loss in Diego Chaves’ record one that maybe he didn’t deserve or at least not by DQ.

In the title fight of the night at The Cosmopolitan, Jessie Vargas retained his title and undefeated record by winning a unanimous decision over Russian Anton Novikov. This fight was not free of controversy, as many considered the scorecards were too wide 118-111 twice and 117-112. The right winner was picked but the fight was much closer than the judges scored the fight.

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