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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
In addition to the Jussier Formiga headbutt on Sunday, there was quite a bit of oddness going on with the officiating. One of the standouts was an early stoppage in the Rony Jason-Steven Siler fight on the preliminary card, with referee Wernei Cardoso making up his mind quickly to stop the fight despite Siler fighting back as he went down.
Jason caught Siler with a big right hand, then knocked him down with a left, but Siler immediately threw his legs up for an upkick as Jason engaged. Unfortunately for him, Cardoso had already gotten there to step in as the upkick was being thrown.
For Jason, though, whether the ref stepped in early or not, he would have worked his way towards the finish in that fight anyway.
"I just work for the UFC," Jason said after the event (via MMAJunkie.com). "The assigned referees are very prepared to protect every athlete, so I don't think it's up to anyone to say if it was stopped early. The same person who criticizes this and says it was an early stoppage might also complain about a late stoppage."
"For me, I've always looked for the knockout or the submission, and God wanted the win to be mine, so I'm here right now. Had he stopped earlier or later, it wouldn't have made a difference. I would have still gone for the finish anyway."
Penick's Analysis: There's always a fine line to walk between stopping a fight too early and stopping it too late. In this instance, Cardoso was too eager to step in and didn't see that Siler was still conscious. Siler was never unconscious, despite being hurt, and was immediately aware enough to throw an upkick. That's not to say Jason wouldn't have just finished it shortly thereafter on the ground, but Siler just didn't get an opportunity to get back into it at all.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_20773.shtml
Alexander Gustafsson Jaime Gutierrez Dave Gomez Keith Hackney
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