Gillian Robertson was well on her way to winning against Piera Rodriguez at UFC Kansas City anyway, but something controversial happened in the dying seconds to take some attention away from what was a beautiful finishing sequence. The fight was already deep into the second round and there was only a minute left of it when Robertson stepped into mount with relative ease. She started raining down shots from there before collecting an arm and spinning from an armbar incredibly quickly.
That should really have been the end of it, and fans would be talking about another fantastic display of Jiu-Jitsu from Robertson. Instead though, Rodriguez appeared to tap for a moment as Robertson was finishing the armbar but the fight continued without the referee intervening. Not long after that though, the referee called the fight off and declared that Rodriguez had verbally submitted while being caught in the armbar. It was definitely a controversial moment as many fans watching have since accused Rodriguez of using a fake tap in order to try and get the upper hand in that moment.
Regardless, Robertson clearly had the submission fully locked in and was declared the winner anyway so at least it didn’t effect the outcome of the fight. Getting the win put Robertson at 9-5 in her the UFC and 12-7 overall in her professional MMA career, marking her ninth submission win. She’s repeatedly displayed some fantastic grappling in the cage, and she’s also put on dominant performances in high-profile grappling matches too.
Footage of the moment that Gillian Robertson was declared the winner at UFC Kansas City and the controversial moments leading up to it was uploaded to the official Twitter account of ESPN MMA:
The armbar gets it done for Gillian Robertson in round two 🔒 #UFCKansasCity pic.twitter.com/dfmPVXkeNP
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) April 15, 2023
Despite the fight being stopped and Gillian Robertson being declared the winner at UFC Kansas City, Piera Rodriguez still claimed that she did not tap, fake or otherwise, immediately after:
Piera Rodriguez claims she did not tappic.twitter.com/5l08RKXM4K
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) April 15, 2023
