UFC Vegas 120 is making some serious press, but it’s for all the wrong reasons, as Billy Ray Goff’s loss to Ty Miller has drawn massive criticism online. In fact, it even left Daniel Cormier asking why the welterweight was sent back out for a third round after receiving a brutal battering in the first ten minutes.

It was in the third round that ‘Thriller’ landed a huge punch that sent Goff flying backward into the cage before he collapsed to the canvas, forcing the referee to step in.

As a result, Daniel Cormier immediately questioned the decision-making in Billy Ray Goff’s corner.

“You could see his orbital bone is broken—look at his eye,” Cormier said on the broadcast. “Look at his right eye. And then when he got hit on the right eye, he went down. The coach told him, ‘Don’t engage, just circle and essentially run.’ Why not just stop the fight?

“The writing was on the wall, especially if that’s the advice you’re giving your guy going into the third round.”

In fact, it wasn’t just the former UFC double champion who was left perplexed by the decision. Ty Miller himself admitted he wasn’t even sure Billy Ray Goff would come back out for the final round.

“I didn’t think he was going to get off the stool, to be honest,” Miller told ‘DC’ in the post-fight interview. “I hit him with some hard shots. But I told myself, ‘Don’t do that, don’t think like that.'”

The unpleasant scene surely brought back memories of another recent UFC fight in which a corner received similar criticism. Tyrell Fortune was knocked out in the third round of UFC Abu Dhabi by Rizvan Kuniev after suffering significant damage in the previous two rounds.

And between those rounds, Fortune informed his corner that one of Kuniev’s knees had severely injured his ribs, and he was struggling to breathe. Despite this, his corner simply sent him back out.

As expected, Kuniev wasted little time capitalizing, landing a flying knee and then launching a series of unanswered attacks that forced the referee to stop the fight.

And this led many to question why Fortune’s corner did not make the choice themselves, especially because their fighter was already two rounds down and clearly injured.

And that is why, even this time, Billy Ray Goff’s corner and referee Jason Herzog, too, came under fire almost immediately after the stoppage.

UFC Vegas 120 viewers demand that Billy Ray Goff’s corner be held accountable

Fans watching the fight weren’t impressed with what they saw between rounds, with many arguing that Billy Ray Goff should never have been allowed to answer the bell for the third.

“Stay away from him. Circle the cage. Great advice!… Not. Stop the fight, coach,” one viewer wrote. Another questioned both the corner and Herzog, writing, “I’m pretty disgusted with Jason Herzog and Billy Ray Goff’s corner. WHY DID THAT FIGHT GO TO ROUND 3?”

One fan was even more emphatic: “CALL IT OFF IN THE CORNER. GOFF IS TOO TOUGH FOR HIS OWN GOOD! Don’t say ‘just don’t engage him’; just call off the fight!”

Others felt Goff’s corner had completely failed him. “Billy Ray Goff should run far away from the clowns in his corner. It was so obvious he had no chance of surviving after the final minute of round 2.”

Another viewer wrote, “The cornermen for Billy Ray Goff with an absolutely deplorable display of incompetence. Telling their losing fighter not to engage is nonsensical. Throw in the towel and protect the kid. Smh!”

The criticism didn’t stop there. “Goff corner should have thrown in the towel. Protect your fighter you scum,” one fan posted.

Another argued that if the corner wasn’t going to stop the fight, it at least needed to change the game plan: “Billy Ray Goff needs some better coaches, Horrible advice. Either stop the fight or tell him to grapple. Striking was not the answer at all.”

Herzog also became a target, with one viewer writing, “That fight is exactly why I always laugh when people say Herzog is the gold standard of reffing. If he was so good he wouldn’t have let that fight see a third round. It’s on the ref as much as the corner that Goff took unnecessary punishment.”

For Billy Ray Goff, the damage had already been done. For everyone watching, the bigger question still remains whether the third round should have happened at all and if the UFC will start taking some serious actions to prevent such future instances.