UFC 211 took place on Saturday night. While the mixed martial arts event held some exciting bouts, one of the night’s fights ended in controversy. Now, the official referee for the evening has decided to come forward with his side of the situation.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez faced off against Dustin Poirier at UFC 211. Both fighters put on a great performance, before the fight was brought to an end.
In the second round, Eddie Alvarez had his opponent against the cage. There, the fighter began landing knees to the head of his opponent. To many of the night’s spectators, the strikes appeared to be illegal blows to a downed opponent. The fight was called a no contest, creating some controversy among fighters and fans.
However, referee veteran Herb Dean has come forward with his thoughts on the matter. Dean officiated the match and determined it was a no contest. On today’s edition of The MMA Hour, Herb Dean explained that Poirier’s knee was down when Alvarez made the devastating strike to his opponent.
For Herd Dean’s full breakdown of the stoppage, view the video below.
“Of course, I do. I definitely stand by that, ruling it a no-contest.”
“His head was over Poirier’s back. I can’t imagine a way where he’d be able to see his hands or his knees. I believe that he was fighting in earnest and thought that the fighter was not grounded. There’s no way I could say that for certain. I attempted to warn him before he went in with that knee, but it was loud in there and I can’t say that he heard me. I don’t believe that he was trying to fight outside of the rules when he threw that knee. I can’t say that he was.”
“I rule a downed opponent as supporting weightObviously if someone’s weight is being supported by their feet and the fence and then they reach down and touch their fingers, there’s lots of gamesmanship that used to go on with that. So we started quite a long time ago, it’s very established, that we rule a downed opponent as supporting weight. Supporting weight means if you snatch their hand away, they’re gonna fall on their face.”
