On Saturday night, the RAC Arena was host to an unheard of situation where a referee went back on their decision to stop a fight and let it carry on after falsely deeming a fighter unconscious.
Jake Matthews would get top mount in his bout against Neil Magny and deliver a seemingly decisive guillotine choke, with referee Jim Perdios appearing to stop the fight with ten seconds to go in round one.
However, after seeing that Magny was conscious the whole time, he got bailed out of his poor decision with the buzzer signalling the end of the round, and Peirdos gave the go-ahead for the fight to continue.
Matthews would continue to dominate the fight in the second round, looking like the favourite was still going to win despite the previous controversy.
However, Magny would add to the bizarre nature of the fight and wrap up a d’arce choke with two minutes to go in the third, forcing Mathews to tap.
“Yes, we will be appealing,” – Matthews management team according to BJPENN.com
The hope from the fanbase online is that the bout will be ruled a ‘no contest’, with the online consensus being that the fight should not have been continued once the referee stopped it.
Unfortunately, this is not the only time the referee in an MMA fight has been thrust into the limelight due to making a severe error that would impact the fight.
Here are three more of the strangest stoppages in MMA history:
Ben Akren vs Robbie Lawler:
The year is 2019, and Ben Askren is making his highly anticipated debut, following his trade with ONE Championship, with Demetrious Johnson going the other way.
Askren went into his UFC tenure with an 18-0-0 (1NC) record and was the favourite to sustain his dominance in the UFC.
However, his tenure could not have started more controversially.
Ben Askren would lock in a bulldog choke in the first round, and Lawler’s arm would seemingly go limp in the referee, Herb Dean’s eyesight, so he subsequently stopped the fight.
Askeren would let go of the joke to celebrate, just for Lawler to stand up behind him, in mere confusion about why the fight got stopped.
Lawler quickly forgave Herb Dean, embracing him shortly after the decision.
In fairness to Herb Dean, Lawler’s arm did seem to flop momentarily, with even the commentary team, including Dominick Cruz and Joe Rogan, hilariously going from simultaneously shouting “He’s out”! Just for seconds later, to shout “He’s not out”!
Ion Cutelaba vs Magomed Ankalaev:
Ankalaev is now the UFC light heavyweight champion, boasting an impressive 21-1-1 (1NC) record.
However, back in 2020, he was more known for being a part of one of the most controversial stoppages in MMA history.
Only 30 seconds into the bout, Cutelaba and Ankalaev looked like they were participating in the “fight of the night”, swinging for the fences.
Ankalaev managed to repeatedly land head kicks, wobbling Cutelaba.
Ankalaev then hit him with a soft left hook, and Cutelaba went to return with a massive overhand right.
That is when the referee got in the middle of the two, and nearly had his head taken off by Cutelaba’s right hand, calling the fight.
Cutelaba protested straight away, as he was still in his fight, fighting back.
The stoppage was controversial, so they had a rematch a couple of months later, but the fight had the same fate, with much less controversy, with Ankalaev winning by TKO in round one.
Drew Dober vs Leandro Silva:
If any football fans are reading this, if you think football referees are bad, wait till you hear about Eduardo Herdy’s referee ability in this fight.
Leandro Silva tried to put Drew Dober in a guillotine choke from his back, grabbing Dober’s neck and pulling guard.
Then Dober defended it expertly, managing to slip his head out of the guillotine.
Bizarrely, when Herdy checked to see if Dober was still mobile, he decided to wave off the fight!
Dober, straight away, while in mount, shook his head in disappointment, demonstrating he was not out for a second and very much still in the fight.
The stoppage was so bad that the result was overturned.
