Another UFC event and yet another controversial referee decision that turned heads. This time, the man in question is veteran referee Marc Goddard, whose late stoppage at UFC Baku raised safety concerns among those who watched it unfold live.

On the UFC Baku prelims, Nursulton Ruziboev took on Andrey Pulyaev in a highly anticipated middleweight bout. From the opening bell, both fighters started swinging haymakers, hoping to knock the other one out. But neither could find the target. However, Ruziboev soon began pressuring his opponent and eventually secured a takedown. From there, the Uzbek fighter masterfully took the Russian’s back and locked in a rear-naked choke, and here began the problem.

Pulyaev struggled for a while, doing his best to escape the choke. However, it became evident that he was about to pass out. Referee Marc Goddard closely monitored the action but took his time before finally stepping in to wave off the fight, with Ruziboev getting the first-round victory. But by the time Godard waved off the fight, the Russian was completely unconscious, and his eyes had rolled back, making the stoppage look all the more horrifying.

Though Pulyaev eventually regained consciousness, he had trouble keeping himself stable as Goddard had to help him sit up. As a result, the veteran referee’s stoppage immediately raised safety concerns. But this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened in a fight officiated by Marc Godard.

At UFC 204, during the welterweight bout between Mike Perry and Danny Roberts, Goddard also stepped in late after ‘Platinum’ knocked Roberts down. During the fight, the English official hesitated just long enough for Perry to land three additional strikes on a fallen Roberts before the fight was finally stopped. But this isn’t specific to Godard either.

Most notably, UFC featherweight contender Melquizael Costa experienced a similar situation while facing Rafael Barbosa at Demolidor Fight in 2018. In that bout, Costa was trapped in an anaconda choke, and the referee, Emerson Saes, also took too long to intervene.

As a result, Costa lost consciousness, and when he later described the experience, he said, “I saw death so close,” while thanking his opponent for releasing the choke.  We don’t know how Pulyaev felt after the UFC Baku submission, but hopefully, his experience wasn’t as severe.

With those previous incidents in mind, fans didn’t mince their words while calling out the veteran referee for his latest controversial stoppage. 

Fans call out referee Marc Goddard over late stoppage at UFC Baku 

One fan quickly chimed in and wrote, “Marc Goddard is f–ing blind 🤦🏽‍♂️ the man was unconscious for a while with white eyes cmon man break it up 💀 #UFC #UFCFightNight.” This was followed by another fan commenting, “Marc Goddard is terrible.” Keeping the same sentiment, another user wrote, “Wtf. So now Marc Goddard is doing LATE stoppages. The guy lost consciousness smh. #UFCBaku.”

Here, the fan pointed out how Marc Goddard found himself on the receiving end of criticism for a late stoppage. Usually, the veteran referee is known for stopping fights too early. Many believe Goddard prematurely stopped the UFC 281 bout when Alex Pereira knocked out Israel Adesanya in the fifth round, prompting the Nigerian-Kiwi to immediately protest the stoppage.

Keeping the backlash alive, another fan noted how the UFC referee appeared to check whether Pulyaev had gone unconscious and still allowed the fight to continue: “My god, Marc Goddard just held Andrey Pulyaev’s hand up to see if he was conscious (he wasn’t) and still let him get choked out before he stopped the fight. F–ing retardsville across the board at this company.”

To be fair, if the Russian fighter wasn’t unconscious, he still had the opportunity to tap and submit to the choke. However, Pulyaev tried to battle out of the submission until the very end and didn’t tap, which made the finish look especially brutal. Still, another fan argued that Goddard should have stopped the fight at least three seconds before Pulyaev’s eyes started rolling back.

The fan wrote, “Marc Goddard literally has downs. He watched Pulyaev’s eyes roll back and still let him get choked for like 3 more seconds lmao #UFCBaku.” That was another criticism directed at the timing of the stoppage. Lastly, another fan commented that the veteran referee simply didn’t have his best night: “Sleep! Marc Goddard was lacking alil bit here #UFCBaku.”

With Marc Goddard once again under scrutiny from viewers, hopefully Andrey Pulyaev didn’t suffer any lasting effects from the choke. On the other hand, Nursulton Ruziboev made history with his first-round finish, this being the 26th first-round finish of his MMA career, on a night that saw multiple records being broken.