In a potential sign of things to come for our crowd-less sporting future, a female fighter at UFC 249 today said she could hear a commentator criticising her and used that advice as she went on to win her fight.
Strawweight Carla Kristen Esparza beat Michelle Waterson today as the UFC returned at a crowd-less event in Jacksonville.
After the fight she revealed that with no fan noise at the arena in Florida, she could hear commentator and UFC heavyweight Daniel Cormier calling the fight octagon-side, TSN Sports reporter Aaron Bronsteter reported.
“He criticized (sic) her for not mixing up her strikes and her wrestling and she used it as advice and started to mix it up more,” Bronsteter wrote on Twitter.
With Cormier’s inadvertent coaching, Esparza went on to win by decision.
With sporting competitions around the world planning to return to action after the Covid-19 pandemic without crowds, and potentially at smaller venues, it will be interesting to see if this situation occurs again with competitors taking advantage of the knowledge of commentators.
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