After a match that was marred in controversy, everyone wanted Seth Daniels to release a statement explaining his actions on why Rocha was not disqualified for his actions on the mat that results in AJ Agazarm getting booted off the stage into a table of spectators.
Today the Fight To Win promoter wrote on his Facebook that the match result has been overturned and had been ruled a no contest.
“After further consideration we have decided to change the result of the Vagner Rocha vs AJ Agazarm match to a no contest,” says Daniels.
“Had AJ decided not to continue the match Vagner would have been DQ’d. AJ remains the #1 contender in gi and no-gi for the F2WPRO black belt middleweight title,” continued Daniels.
“Given the circumstances I stand by my decision to calm down the fighters and allow the match to continue. This was an unprecedented situation. Moving forward, any intentional striking or shoving out of bounds will result in automatic disqualification.”
In an previous statement, Seth Daniels revealed his reasons for allowing the match to continue after Rocha’s Sparta kick.
“Vagner kicking AJ off the stage was completely ridiculous. Regardless of the tensions and situations,” he wrote. “I went on the stage after the kick to tell Vagner to cut the shit off and to check on AJ. When I could see that AJ was not injured and clearly still wanted to fight we allowed the match to continue. I warned Vagner that any more bullshit would result in DQ.”
“In my opinion it was the right decision to allow the match to continue and let the tensions be settled with chokes, armbars and sweeps rather then a fist fight in the parking lot where weapons or other altercations could have occurred between the two and their fans.”
The referee of the match, Marcos Flores, has also spoken out about the incident…
“As the ref for that match I had to go with prior instructions to concede any decisions to Seth,” said Flores. “He asked both competitors if they wanted to continue and both agreed. Vagner was told if anything else happened that it would be a DQ.”
“I as a seasoned referee would have DQ’d but I understand the reasoning behind not. Both guys trained for months prior and didn’t want it to end after 13 seconds.”
“I respect the decision made at the event and after the event with the no contest.”
Vagner has also released a statement explaining his actions during the match in a very “Sorry, not sorry” way.
“So I’ve spent a good amount of time thinking about what I did yesterday, and at the end of the day I’m not sure how I feel,” says Rocha. “I go to a competition (fight) where my opponent has told everyone he’ll strangle me unconscious and use my body as a raffle prize for people to pose and take pictures with; and this is not the first time he has disrespected me!”
“Some people may not understand the kill or be killed mentality of a fighter in that situation. Emotions run high and the testosterone is flowing, which is not always resultant in the best decision making. I could have kept it on the mat the whole time and feel that a one second decision does not define the match that lasted ten minutes.”
“I do feel extremely bad for the Stolberg family at the table that I pushed AJ into and publicly apologize to them and will contact them personally to apologize.”