UFC 166: Junior dos Santos' coach 'never considered' throwing in the towel

Junior dos Santos took an epic amount of punishment en route to losing to Cain Velasquez via TKO in the fifth round of their UFC 166 title fight. He's been suspended indefinitely by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

But his jiu-jitsu coach Yuri Carlton tells MMA Fighting's Guilherme Cruz that it never occurred to him to try and stop the fight:

"To be honest, I never considered throwing in the towel," he said. "If something like that ever happens, Luiz Carlos Dorea (boxing coach) would be the one to decide. I was hoping for the knockout all the time. In the fifth round, 'Cigano' went for that choke. Anything can happen. We see a guy lose the whole fight and then win in the last round. It happens all the time. We're not impressed by blood or anything like that, neither is ‘Cigano'. He always fights for the win, no matter what.

"He always tries that submission in the gym, and he submits a lot of sparring partners here with it," Carlton said about dos Santos' submission attempt seconds before the end of the fight. "He went for it automatically. Cain Velasquez rolled to defend and ‘Cigano' felt with his face on the ground and couldn't fight anymore. But even if he didn't hit his head on the ground he wouldn't win anyway, it wouldn't change the fight. He was already beat. We hoped he could land a good punch even if he was completely tired, but it didn't happen.

"After the second round, he was fighting in the autopilot mode but he didn't tell me he thought he lost in the second round," he said. "But that's normal. Sometimes you go out with a punch or a good elbow but keep fighting automatically. That's normal."

Carlton's comments are remarkably similar to those of Javier Mendez, Cain Velasquez' head coach, as told to Ariel Helwani on Monday's MMA Hour:

"I would've been torn, to be honest with you. I might've stopped the fight," Mendez admitted when asked if he would've thrown in the towel had the two sides been switched.

"But I would've been like, ‘Man, I don't know, because my fighter is such a great warrior, he takes good shots, he still has a chance to win.' Man, it would've been a tough call."

What do you think? Would you have thrown in the towel if you were in dos Santos' corner?

SBN coverage of UFC 166: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos III

http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/21/4863690/akas-javier-mendez-fires-back-at-roy-nelson-looks-ahead-to-werdum

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