UFC Fight Night: Waterson vs Hill saw seven finishes, and each of them was memorable in its own right. However, there was one finish that attracted attention for the wrong reasons. It came because of a referee oversight midway during the fight, and Ed Herman beating Mike Rodriguez could be termed as daylight robbery. UFC President Dana White was not thrilled by what transpired. 

Following the fight night, White lambasted the sequence of events. He said, “It’s one of the most disgusting bad calls I’ve ever seen in my life. He finished Ed Herman tonight, and he loses the fight. I was just happy he didn’t get his arm broken at the end of the fight. It was just so bad.”

The incident occurred in round two of the sole light heavyweight fight on the card. Mike Rodriguez appeared to have struck Ed Herman on the cup. 

Herman grimaced and fell to the ground, clearly winded, and tried to get his bearings. As per protocol, Rodriguez walked away and let his opponent recover. 

However, he needn’t have done that as replays showed that his knee caught ‘Short Fuse’ somewhere in his right rib cage. This should have been a TKO body strike victory for him. 

At the post-event media interaction, White said, “That was some Mazzagatti level shit right there. That was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. That kid wins by knockout. Technical knockout and loses the fight. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

Dana White says the UFC needs to consider having a replay facility

Herman made a comeback midway through round three. He used all his experience to lock in a Kimura and claim an unlikely submission win. Had the UFC been able to use replay, this would not have been the case. 

White said, “I was all over him tonight on replay. We have to have replay, gotta have replay. All you gotta do is look at the f***ing replay that’s playing six thousand times while Herman’s is on the ground.”

Refereeing errors get called into question, and they are under great scrutiny. White agreed that the referees are human. However, he cannot comprehend how Chris Tognoni saw a body blow as a groin strike. 

“They can’t see everything. They’re human. That’s a tough one. How do you think that is a groin kick is next level. It happens what’re you gonna do,” said a perplexed Dana White.

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Replays will make things fairer and could be used just like other sports do to spot obvious errors. Hence, a body blow resulting in a low strike stoppage would qualify. 

What did you make of the refereeing howler at the UFC Apex?