Israel Adesanya‘s City Kickboxing teammate and undefeated light heavyweight prospect, Navajo Stirling, fought Ion Cutelaba in the co-main event of the UFC Vegas 119 event tonight. The fighters ended up delivering a thrilling contest with plenty of back-and-forth action. However, the ending of the fight turned out to be so strange that it did not go unnoticed.

As the more seasoned fighter, Cutelaba pressed Stirling from the opening bell and found success with several precise shots. At one point, the Moldovan fighter even locked the Kiwi into a tight guillotine choke, but Stirling managed to escape the dangerous position. Following the sequence, the 28-year-old Upper Hutt native started picking up the pace and began targeting Cutelaba’s body with heavy strikes.

Following a highly competitive first round, Cutelaba became even more aggressive with his takedown attempts in the second and successfully brought the fight to the mat. However, Stirling once again escaped the grappling exchanges by reversing position and suddenly found the biggest opening of the fight. Three minutes into the round, the Kiwi unleashed a barrage of punches on the Moldovan fighter, who surprisingly remained seated against the cage with one hand on his head and the other one down, offering virtually no resistance. Stirling continued punishing Cutelaba with a few more elbows and ground strikes for a considerable amount of time until referee Kerry Hatley finally stepped in to stop the fight, giving the entire sequence a bizarre ending.

Even Daniel Cormier, who was on commentary duty, reacted to the sequence from the broadcast booth: “That was the weirdest thing just right there…” Although Cormier did not explicitly state it, his reaction to the lack of resistance offered by Cutelaba during the final exchange said it all.

The ending even prompted MMA reporter Adam Martin to remark, “Navajo Stirling wins via second-round TKO. Kinda weird stoppage.”

A similar instance occurred during Chris Weidman’s fight against Mark Muñoz in 2012. The former middleweight champion delivered a dominant performance at UFC on Fuel TV 4, dropping Muñoz with a devastating elbow in the second round. Following that, Weidman unleashed a barrage of brutal ground-and-pound strikes while receiving virtually no resistance from his opponent. As the unanswered shots continued to pile up, referee Josh Rosenthal eventually stepped in to stop the contest, bringing an end to the one-sided beating. 

Fans react to controversial stoppage in UFC Vegas 119 co-main event 

Following the clips of the stoppage going viral, internet users collectively remarked on the strange ending sequence and attempted to explain why it might have ended the way it did. One user posited, “Either he just straight up quit or the fight is fixed.”

To be fair, Cutelaba appeared exhausted from all the wrestling exchanges he initiated against Stirling, and the commentators also pointed that out during the fight. However, him sitting against the cage without answering the Kiwi’s strikes, combined with the referee’s noticeably late intervention, made the entire sequence look strange.

Implying that the Moldovan veteran had simply run out of his cardio, one fan wrote, “Bro he gassed out 😢.” However, another user was impressed by the undefeated UFC fighter’s grappling and commented, “His grappling was better than I expected.” Then a different fan also noticed Stirling’s improved ground game but questioned the power behind his strikes, writing, “Great scrambles he isn’t bad at all he just has zero f—ing pop in his shots it just looks like pillow punches.”

Well, out of his 10 professional victories, Stirling has secured six by knockout and has finished each of his last two opponents, including his recent victory over Ion Cutelaba at UFC Vegas 119. So, it doesn’t appear that he completely lacks power. However, Stirling tends to rely more on volume rather than trying to put opponents away with a single shot like Alex Pereira or Ilia Topuria, which is simply a stylistic distinction.

Following the undefeated fighter’s victory, one fan suggested that Stirling’s next fight should come against a ranked light heavyweight and even proposed that the City Kickboxing standout take Aleksandar Rakic’s place in the rankings. “Regardless of Ion, Navajo deserves a top 15. Maybe take Rakic’s spot since he moved up.”

The fan correctly pointed out that Rakic has moved up to heavyweight and is currently scheduled to face Marcin Tybura at the UFC Serbia Fight Night event. In that case, the UFC could potentially match Stirling against No. 15-ranked Alonzo Menifield as his next test inside the Octagon.

Regardless of the strange nature of the ending, Navajo Stirling has improved his record to 10-0. Now there is little doubt that a bigger challenge awaits him next. Given the resilience he showed after surviving Cutelaba’s early grappling pressure and ultimately securing the finish, the undefeated prospect appears ready for a significant step up in competition following UFC Vegas 119.