Piera Rodriguez was disqualified for blatantly headbutting Ariane Carnelossi during their fight at UFC Fight Night 241, but that hasn’t stopped the Venezuelan fighter from posting an angry rant aimed at her rival after the event was over.
Rodriguez’s moments of madness during the fight came in the second round at a time where she clearly had the upperhand, having dazed Carnelossi with a front kick to the head and follow-up punches until she fell over, then got on top looking for a finish.
However, Carnelossi was able to close her guard and tie up Rodriguez’s arms to buy herself some time while she tried to recover. Rodriguez had other ideas though and appeared to headbutt Carnelossi, which brought about an instant verbal warning from referee Mark Smith, who could clearly be heard saying, “watch the head, be careful of the head.”
Remarkably, immediately afterwards Rodriguez landed an even harder headbutt leading to a referee stoppage to give Carnelossi time to recover. In the end though Carnelossi was unable to continue and so Rodriguez was disqualified for the headbutts and Carnelossi emerges with the victory.
Rather than showing remorse for her actions, later that night Rodriguez chose to call out Carnelossi in a social media rant.
“I rather lose a fight because of a mistake I did, than go home calling myself a ‘winner’ knowing I am a coward,” Rodriguez wrote to Carnelossi . “I made a big mistake, maybe because of adrenaline…But you have to go to sleep with that lie in your head your entire life! [Carnelossi] and you call yourself brave? I hope you and your team enjoy my money!”
Notably, even Rodriguez herself isn’t trying to claim that her headbutts weren’t intentional, and rightly so as it was clear to see in the replays.
“Hey guys, we just got back from the hospital and we’re already at the hotel,” Carnelossi wrote in an Instagram story. “After some tests, it was detected [I have] a fractured nose and an injury to the zygomatic bone, plus the formation of a blood clot in the sinus region.
“Thank you EVERYONE who sent me positive messages. As for [Rodriguez], what people need to understand is that what often differentiates humans from animals are the RULES.”
Regardless of whether Carnelossi’s injuries came from the illegal blows, or whether it was the legal blows earlier in the round, it still feels like a disqualification was the right result in the end, so Rodriguez’s failure to apologize feels like another blunder on her part.
This was Rodriguez’s second loss in a row, leaving the former Contender series recruit 2-2 in the promotion overall.
