UFC 292 and 293 have been eye-openers for many. In both of these events, two loud-mouthed, antagonistic fighters, were expected to have little chance against the champions they were facing. But, both Sean O’Malley and Sean Strickland shocked the UFC world and beat Aljamain Sterling and Israel Adesanya respectively with great ease.

However, some, including the commentators have spoken about the second-round stoppage being a bit early. The bout was stopped after O’Malley caught Sterling with a beautiful counter right, flush on the chin. And the referee Marc Goddard, has come under fire from fans for his alleged early stoppage.

Fan compares Marc Goddard’s refereeing in Strickland-Adesanya with Sterling-O’Malley

A fan took to Twitter and posted a video of the last 30 seconds of the first round of Sean Strickland vs. Israel Adesanya fight, where Strickland knocks down ‘Izzy’, then follows up with a series of unanswered shots. He pointed out that the referee, Marc Goddard, had let ‘Tarzan’ hit Adesanya with 26 shots without a single counter from ‘Stylebender. On the other hand, he wrote, that he did not give such leeway to Aljamain Sterling. Goddard, who was referee for the bantamweight title bout between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley, was accused by many of a premature stoppage in that fight, including by his friend and fellow UFC bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili. He ascribed this alleged inconsistency to the UFC having put a thumb on the scale.

“Marc Goddard let Adesanya eat 26(TWENTY SIX) unanswered shots from Sean Strickland and didn’t even think of stopping the fight yet he barely gave @funkmasterMMA a chance to recover vs “suga” We all know Marc got “the call”…” he wrote.

Aljamain Sterling responds to the fan’s tweet

‘Funkmaster’ replied to this message and stated that he had actually talked to Goddard after UFC 293 in Sydney. He appreciated the referee for being receptive to feedback and promised fans he would return to the top.

“I feel you on this for sure. Gooddard and I spoke in Sydney after the fight. He’s open to dialogue and I respect the hell out of that. Unfortunately, what’s done is done. I’ll be back for certain tho! “

READ MORE: True African Fight Interrupted as Dricus Du Plessis Can’t Believe Sean Strickland Dropped Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 in One of the Biggest Upsets in MMA History

Although there has been a lot of chatter around an early stoppage, Sterling has been extremely gracious and magnanimous, not having ascribed his defeat, as he feels it would take away from ‘Suga’s well-earned victory. UFC fans are hoping to see him get an opportunity to fight for the title soon. But, O’Malley seems to be in no mood for an immediate rematch. Do you think Sterling should get an immediate rematch against O’Malley? Let us know in the comments section below.

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