Chad George comes up a winner trying to show MMA fighters are role models

Athletes in all sports are taught to play until the whistle blows, or until the referee says stop.

But because Chad George decided not to pay attention to that dictum, not only was a potentially dangerous situation averted, but he left the cage in Irvine, Calif., following his win over Mark Vorgeas at Bellator 136 on Friday with a greatly enhanced reputation.

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In the first round of their bantamweight fight, George caught Vorgeas with a Von Flue choke. Vorgeas went out, but referee Milan Ayers, standing only feet away, didn't realize it (4:10 mark of the video above). George let go of the choke, looked up at Ayers and said of Vorgeas, "He's out." Slowly, Ayers walked closer and said, "No, he's not. No, he's not."

And so George stepped back and pointed. When Vorgeas didn't move, Ayers took another step in, crouched over Vorgeas and only then realized he was out, calling off the bout.

George would have been well within his rights to keep the choke on or do some ground and pound on Vorgeas untll Ayers decided to stop the fight. But he chose the sportsmanlike route, much like Brian Stann did in 2012 during a bout with Alessio Sakara, when he alerted referee Marc Godard that Sakara was out cold and chose not to keep striking him.

George said the fight was over and he'd done his job.

"Clearly, the fight was over and I didn't want to cause any more damage than needed to be done," George told Yahoo Sports. "I would hope someone would do the same for me if the roles were reversed. We both have families to go home to. This is a tough business and we know what can happen. You sometimes see a guy get a knockout and walk away, but in this case, I was fortunate to be able to get a submission and walk away."

He made the move that needed to be made, and showed the kind of professionalism and sportsmanship that epitomizes so many MMA fighters.

He said he wasn't angry with Ayers and didn't criticize the official for failing to see what was going on. He was right on the money in everything he had to say, striking the perfect tone.

"It wasn't frustrating that [Ayers] didn't see it," George said. "I knew it was over and it was more like, I wanted to get out of there and get back to my family and friends and all of the people who had supported me. That's really what it was. I was in a way caught between a rock and a hard place.

"Do I act on emotion and rain down punches on him that could cause serious damage, or do I show I'm a professional. I knew I could walk away and I made the judgment call. We're professionals and we're not in there to hurt anyone or do any more damage than is needed to win the fight. The fight was won and when it was over, it was over and I felt it was important to end it there."

Though he fought down on the card, for that decision alone, that made Chad George the Fighter of the Night. And in a lot of places, probably in the homes of people close to Vorgeas, he might be the Fighter of the Year.

He did the classy, sportsmanlike thing when it would have been so easy to do the opposite.

Bravo, Chad George.