Jon Anik was as confused as the rest of us watching Steven Nguyen put a prolonged beatdown on Mohammad Yahya at UFC Abu Dhabi.
Nguyen set a UFC record by scoring six knockdowns (though there appeared to be at least one more than the official number) against Yahya en route to a dominant second-round knockout, which was only called at the very end of the period due to a doctor stoppage. Fans and fighters were quick to question referee Jason Herzog not stepping in to save Yahya earlier.
On his Anik & Florian podcast, Anik explained why heâs one of the many voices criticizing Herzog.
âWhat are we doing in the form of fighter safety?â Anik said. âMaybe I should call my friend Jason Herzog, who I really do love, âHey Jason, itâs Jon. Can you do a me a favor and just stop the fight?â Thereâs a lot to unpack here. … Jason Herzog was the referee for [Daniel] Zellhuber and [Esteban] Ribovics and if you hear nothing else I say today, I donât know if I was suggestive on the broadcast that that fight should have been stopped at one point in time, but I thought Zellhuber should have sort of been saved to maybe live to fight another day, and the result was that Herzog rather masterfully let the fight play out and the result was the Fight of the Year.
âBut my thesis always is what are we doing in the form of fighter safety? The ends donât justify the means if thereâs a rally and a Fight of the Year ensues. Just because Mohammad Yahya doesnât have an orbital fracture doesnât mean that heretofore heâs not going to pay dearly for this.â
On the call with Felder for UFC Abu Dhabi were commentators and former UFC fighters Paul Felder and Michael Bisping. The two have been in plenty of wars themselves, but even they wondered what the limit was for the amount of punishment Yahya would be allowed to endure.
âPaul Felder said towards the end of Round 2, âThis fightâs not going to continue, right? Because eventually a physicianâs going to get involved here,ââ Anik said. âBisping first called for a potential stoppage because of all the knockdowns at the two-and-a-half minute mark exactly of Round 1, and I do believe weâre not assessing concussive damage live in the minute, but after myriad knockdownsâIâm not saying there should be a knockdown rule in mixed martial arts, but it does exist for a reason, but after six or seven of these f*cking things, we can stop the fight.â
Unfortunately for Herzog, this is the second time in two weeks heâs been the subject of criticism from the MMA community, as several fighters also called him out for stopping the UFC Nashville main event too early. Herzog ended that fight in just 35 seconds as Derrick Lewis was battering Tallison Teixeira, who was illegally grabbing the fence with both hands to try and recover.
Anik sympathizes with Herzog, who is dealing with the blame for two opposite kinds of errors.
âYouâre damned if you do, youâre damned if you donât,â Anik said. âThey all connect together. We can think back to Cheick Kongo and Pat Barry. I just think, Kevin MacDonald, a lot of early stoppages in his career as a referee and Iâve said repeatedly that as a ref you are going to be universally praisedâI guess not universally, but the consensus is going to praise you if you let a fight go long and chaos Fight-of-the-Year-type shit ensues.
âYou are going to be roundly criticized if you stop a fight too early, especially in a big setting like a main event or a title fight.â
As for Yahyaâs corner, Anik doesnât think they should be absolved of responsibility either.
âPlenty,â Anik said when asked how much blame Yahyaâs corner should receive. âAnd itâs probably shame on me for not acknowledging their culpability in all of this. I donât know. For the sake of the show, I watched it, and I donât know if Iâm being particularly reactionary right now, but it was not good. Not good.
âHow many knockdownsâlike, I donât think we need a three-knockdown rule in MMA, but how about this, if you get knocked down five times in an MMA round, do you think itâs fair that they stop the fight?â
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