Doctor wanted to stop fight, says Doliguez’s corner

MANILA, Philippines – Erwin Tagle, the chief second of Roy Doliguez in his ONE Championship strawweight title campaign, says that the cageside physician repeatedly recommended stopping the bout due to the eye-poking incident.

The five-round strawweight championship clash against Thai kickboxer Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke on Friday, May 22 in the “Warrior’s Quest” co-headliner was plagued by unintentional fouls and an inadvertent low blow.

Doliguez was caught by an accidental nudge to the eye in the fourth round that marginally kept the 33-year-old fighter from Malungon, Sarangani out of his game.

Sor Amnuaysirichoke committed another unintended foul with a groin shot after Doliguez utilized the full five minutes to recuperate from the previous injury.

“The doctor keeps on telling us to quit already before the start of the fifth round because of Roy’s eye poke incident. He couldn’t see clearly after the incident. I said no way! We’re here to take the belt and we will fight to the death,” Tagle wrote on his personal Facebook account.

In the fifth and final frame, Sor Amnuaysirichoke clipped another eye poke, causing referee Joey Lepiten to wave it off at the 3:22 mark as the Filipino was deemed unable to continue the title tilt.

When the scorecards were read, the judges awarded a technical unanimous decision victory and the inaugural ONE strawweight belt to Sor Amnuaysirichoke.

According to Tagle, who is a retired mixed martial arts (MMA) competitor, the last accidental blow was a head butt and not an eye poke.

In addition, he stressed that Doliguez wanted to go on with the fight, but ONE matchmaker Matt Hume intervened and told them they had reached the limit for injury timeouts, sending the fight to the scorecards.

“Fight was stopped and was handed to the judges with [almost] three minutes left in the fifth round. He was accidentally eye-poked in the early rounds and an accidental groin shot. And the last one was a head butt. We still wanted to continue and fight. But Matt Hume said accidental timeouts have reached its limit and it will go to the judges,” Tagle said.

Tagle disclosed that ONE chief Victor Cui plans to pit Doliguez versus Sor Amnuaysirichoke again, but the company head honcho did not give any specific date on when it will take place.

“It was still an awesome experience. Victor said Roy will get another shot for sure,” he said.

Doliguez was only given one month to prepare when he inked a deal with Asia’s largest MMA promotion to face Sor Amnuaysirichoke for the maiden ONE strawweight championship.

– Rappler.com