Atlantic City — Nathan Kelly tapped, then went to sleep at PFL Atlantic City, choked out by a Frederik Dupras guillotine choke.
The featherweight fight sparked a bit of controversy after the ref was seemingly out of position to actually see the tap, leading to Kelly unnecessarily being put to sleep, however momentarily.
Following the bout, Canada’s Dupras (9-2) gave his side of the stoppage.
“The thing is, it’s happened to me before. I tell the ref the guy was out, it was kind of viral. Now I knew, when I have a sub, I never let go til the ref stops it,” he told media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Of course, the ref, in this case, was slow to make the call. And Dupras just couldn’t be sure.
“At one point, I knew he tapped, but he didn’t give me a reaction after that. So I was like ‘okay he tapped, but he just tried to fight it back, or? Like kind of bluffing me, try to make it not a tap. I was like ‘okay I’ll just keep it’ but she [the ref] was like ‘oh no no no, stop it.'”
“I didn’t know he was out,” Dupras finished. “I thought it was kind of like, maybe when we fell, he was breathing in it, but he was out.”
As for his choking ability, “when I have it, I know it’s GG. Good game my brother,” stated Dupras.
The outcome of Friday’s fight was a vastly different one from Frederik Dupras’ PFL debut, where he was himself submitted by Gabriel Braga.
“I think I need to be clear, I got brought in on one day, or two days notice,” Dupras observed. “I was not prepared for this. But now, with Kelly I was prepared for this. For sure, sometimes it happens, opportunity, it comes to me. But it’s different when you’re prepared.”
“I am an animal, brother. When I go, I go. I’m coming in here like a train. Can’t stop, won’t stop.”
Watch the full PFL Atlantic City post-fight press conference with Frederik Dupras above.
