Brian Stann explains why he stopped hitting Sakara

“His legs were wrapped around me so I could feel his muscles go limp, and my instincts just said this guy is no longer there,” he said.

Of course, there were many that praised Stann for not delivering excess punishment to the Italian fighter, who shortly afterward regained his senses. The gesture made the home page of Yahoo! Sports.

Stann suspects Sakara may have been verbally submitting with the utterance, but can’t be sure. His Italian isn’t so good. Regardless, he feels he did the right thing.

“I really respect Alessio,” he said. “I could feel he was done and was no longer really with us, so I looked to the ref for some help there.”

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