Chael Sonnen shares ‘conspiracy’ over KO stoppage in Derrick Lewis vs Tallison Teixeira fight

Sonnen pointed out Teixeira’s fence grabs and suggested the referee didn’t mean to stop the fight. The 48-year-old former fighter believes Herzog initially intended to address an infraction, but the crowd misunderstood his actions.

“You have to watch the ending of that fight, fairly closely to see this. But there is a clear rule infraction not once, but twice, with the grabbing of the fence,” Sonnen said.

“It changed the position, got him back up to his feet. A lot of times a referee will let an exchange finish and then make a ruling. Not in a case like that when you lose position, the ref has to step in right then and put Teixeira down, put the Black Beast on top of him, and they’ll continue from there. I don’t think he intended to call that a TKO, I don’t think he intended to stop that fight.

“My own conspiracy, but I believe he was stopping the action to offer discipline, 1 point for the fence grab. Derrick starts celebrating, crowd starts reacting…all the makings of a TKO and my own belief is that they just went with it. I believe that’s what I saw! They called it an early stoppage because, well yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be a stoppage.”

Teixeira didn’t mention anything about the stoppage straight after the fight as he focused on moving forward from his first professional defeat.

Jason Herzog admits his stoppage may have been a bit premature

Derrick Lewis vs Tallison Teixeira capped off what was an eventful night of fights at UFC Nashville. The card also featured an exciting co-main event between Stephen Thompson and Gabriel Bonfim, while rising stars like Morgan Charriere made their mark with impressive finishes.

Lewis is now closing in on a potential heavyweight title shot after his win in Nashville. He’s one of the few top contenders who hasn’t faced current champion Tom Aspinall, who’s expected to defend his belt later this year. Whether Lewis gets a third chance at a UFC title remains to be seen.