Anatomy of a bloodbath: Late stoppage wasn't the only issue with Shevchenko vs. Cachoeira

In a sport known for its unexpected twists and turns, sometimes the most shocking outcome is when things go exactly how you think they will – especially when it turns out that you weren’t ready for what that would look like.

Take Valentina Shevchenko, for example. She came into her flyweight debut at UFC Fight Night 125 in Belem, Brazil, as a colossal 10-1 favorite over UFC newcomer Priscila Cachoeira.

The point of this exercise seemed to be obvious: Shevchenko (15-3 MMA, 4-2 UFC), who ought to be an instant favorite to get her hands on the title in the UFC’s newly created women’s 125-pound division, was supposed to go out there and get herself some highlights.

Cachoeira (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) was as good a sacrificial lamb as any. She came in with an unbeaten record, even if it was against lower tier competition, but she had no real chance to do much against a fighter of Shevchenko’s caliber and anybody who saw a minute of her fight footage knew it.

So what happened? Pretty much what you’d expect. Shevchenko went out in the first round and elbowed a hole in her face, then elbowed her some more, and pretty soon that corner of the cage looked like someone had used it to film a horror movie.

When, against all good sense, Cachoeira marched back out for the second round, Shevchenko did it some more. And some more. And then some more.

See, here’s the tricky part. As the beating progressed, eventually we turned our collective focus on referee Mario Yamasaki. Why wasn’t he stopping this? Why was he just standing there and watching Cachoeira bleed? Was he trying to get her killed?

These are all fair questions, especially for a fight that, from its opening moment, resembled an assault more than a competition. At the same time, complaining about the late stoppage in a squash match that was never going to be anything but a beatdown is a little like criticizing a demolition derby for its carbon footprint.

It was obvious what this was. And apparently we were fine with that just as long as the ref kept the total blood output to two pints or less. It was when we were forced to confront the prolonged ugliness of a horrendously one-sided fight that we began to get mad.

That’s not to say that Yamasaki is blameless. Not even close. Clearly, he screwed this one up, almost as if he were so intent on keeping it going that he was willing to ignore it even when Cachoeira started to tap out. He’s going to get buried in criticism for this one, and he deserves it.

Still, this mismatch didn’t materialize out of nowhere. The UFC made this fight, and UFC President Dana White’s defense of it makes about as much sense as if Yamasaki told us he was giving Cachoeira a chance to catch her second wind.

“For the MORONS says it’s her UFC debut……it’s the entire divisions debut,” White wrote on Instagram, in response to comments on a post criticizing Yamasaki. “There will be Fights like this until the entire division starts to weed out who belongs and who doesn’t. That’s why u need good officials who stop fights when they need to be stopped!!!!!!”

That explanation makes no sense at all. The women’s flyweight class might be new in the UFC, but it’s not new overall. It is not an unknowable mystery. If it were, oddsmakers wouldn’t have so easily pegged Shevchenko as a massive favorite.

This is a fighter who, in her last bout, came within a point or two of winning the UFC title in the division above this one. She has extensive experience as a kickboxer, and her only losses in the UFC are to the current women’s bantamweight champ.

So yeah, we already knew she was pretty good. Just because the weight class is new to the UFC, that doesn’t mean every fighter in it is starting from zero and figuring it out on the fly.

It’s the referee’s job to protect the fighters, and Yamasaki failed something awful on Saturday night, but he shouldn’t be the only one with some responsibility to consider fighter safety.

This beating wasn’t a complete accident. We might want to consider what it means when our real issue is not that the fight was a non-competitive bloodbath – but that it lasted too long.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 125, check out the UFC Events section of the site.