BOSTON – Gregory Rodrigues denies hitting Denis Tiuliulin on the back of the head.
Rodrigues (14-5 MMA, 5-2 UFC) smashed Tiuliulin (11-8 MMA, 1-3 UFC) with vicious elbows on the ground in their middleweight matchup this past Saturday at UFC 292 – one of them which appeared to land on the back of Tiuliulin’s head.
The apparent illegal blow is what led to the fight-ending sequence as Rodrigues needed just one more strike to knock out Tiuliulin in Round 1 at TD Garden. But Rodrigues says he did not hit Tiuliulin on the back of the head.
“I didn’t hit that,” Rodrigues told reporters, including MMA Junkie, backstage at TD Garden. “I knew what I was doing there. It was right behind the ear. He was on the side, so how am I going to hit the head if he was on the side? If you guys saw the video, I landed one and he turned, and then I stopped it.
“Then I felt (he went) weak and dizzy, and then I landed the other one. But it was right on the side (of the head) and then the ref came and stopped the fight. I hit him like two or three times, and that was all that was necessary for him to stop the fight, but I didn’t at all hit in the back of the head.”
Rodrigues is open to rebooking his scrapped UFC 283 bout with Brad Tavares (20-9 MMA, 15-8 UFC), who was also victorious this past Saturday when he defeated the returning former champion Chris Weidman.
“Oh yeah, Brad Tavares just won,” Rodrigues said. “If he wants to fight, man, I’m ready for December. Let’s go. December I want go go back, and Brad Tavares is a great name for me.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.
