Marina Rodriguez

Marina Rodriguez critcizes early stoppage in Amanda Lemos loss: ‘I’m there to face a lot more’

Marina Rodriguez isn’t happy with the stoppage in her TKO loss to Amanda Lemos on Saturday.

Rodriguez was facing Lemos in the main event of UFC Vegas 64 in a potential title eliminator bout, especially with the strawweight belt on the line in the co-main event of UFC 281. Rodriguez has been on a nice streak and was the betting favorite, but in the third round, Lemos started to tee off on Rodriguez and the ref jumped in rather quickly.

Right away, Rodriguez threw her hands up as she disagreed with the stoppage. Now, following the loss, Rodriguez took to social media to explain why she thought the fight was stopped too soon.

“You stopped too soon! As a professional, I’m there to face a lot more, that’s what I’m in this game !!! It’s part of the game, win, lose, in different situations! We continue in our way! Thank you all for the support and cheerleading!,” Rodriguez tweeted after the loss.

With the loss, Marina Rodriguez dropped to 16-2-2, and the loss to Lemos was the first stoppage loss of her career. Her other loss came by split decision to the now champ, Carla Esparza in July of 2020. Before the TKO loss to Lemos, Rodriguez was on a four-fight win streak and was coming off a split decision win over Yan Xiaonan. She also picked up decision wins over Mackenzie Dern and Michelle Waterson in her first two main events while also having a TKO win over Amanda Ribas.

As for Amanda Lemos, she is now 13-2-1 and on a two-fight win streak as she also submitted Michelle Waterson. In her first main event, Lemos suffered a first-round submission loss to Jessica Andrade, who is now fighting at flyweight, which could allow Lemos to be fighting for the belt next time out. The Brazilian will also enter the top-three at strawweight.

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Cole Shelton
Cole Shelton covers MMA for BJPenn.com, MMANews, and MyMMANews.com while also being the lead MMA odds writer for Sports Betting Dime