a side choke isn’t as “dangerous” as it looked, it’s essentially a blood choke, as soon as he let go the danger was over. It just looks bad visually but they don’t hurt much, you wake up like wtf happened?
Royce Gracie used to hang onto holds after he let go of Ken Shamrock when he tapped on the opposite side of the ref and Ken was like
I didn’t tap bro even tho the replay showed he clearly did.
It’s not like he was cranking on an arm bar/heel hook
It was fun seeing mma twitter get so angry about it, Hager might have gotten himself a marquee match/good pay day with that “heel” turn