- Henry Cejudo quizzed referee Jason Herzog to explain why he didn’t deduct a point from Song Yadong at UFC Seattle
- The UFC official implied that he should’ve made a better decision but “Triple C” was still responsible for his defeat
Henry Cejudo boldly confronted referee Jason Herzog in an interview to discuss his controversial loss to Song Yadong due to eye pokes.
Henry wanted some answers
In an intense talk with the UFC official on his official YouTube channel, “Triple C” questioned Herzog’s call that ultimately led to his disappointing defeat at UFC Seattle. Cejudo argued that Herzog could’ve prevented his loss had he taken a point away from Song for intentionally stretching his fingers resulting in repeated eye pokes.
“The dude sticks his finger on then catches you, whether it was intentional or not, the dude stuck his fingers out blatantly like this, like he was Hitler and he caught me. So, I would just love to know your position and how do you take it man like how do you take it now Jason and I mean do you feel like you made the right call?,” Cejudo firmly asked Herzog.
“His fingers up like this Jason, you didn’t even warn him… You specifically did this and the whole thing, everything that you said happened to me and there is no point taken away man… I have a loss on my record because you didn’t make the right call man, that bugs me a little bit,” he opened up.
Herzog came up with a candid response
On the other hand, Herzog came clean about possibly doing a better job handling the situation. However, he also insisted that he was left with no choice but to proceed with the fight as “Triple C” assured he only needed a few minutes to recover after getting poked in the third round.
In his defense, Herzog pointed out that even though he failed to deduct a point from Song, it was Cejudo that decided not to continue after Round 3.
“I’m not trying to say that it’s right or wrong, I’ve heard you now and I completely agree,” Herzog explained. “Especially afterwards when he came out with his fingers like this [pointing out], why didn’t you [I] then stop it and take a point immediately… I think that’s a very valid criticism and an adjustment that I probably should have made. I think that’s a fair point.”
“I can’t say that you’re wrong, and when I watch it again, I’m like, yeah, you should have probably stopped it and taken a point there… But I will tell you right now though, because we’re talking about the point deduction, when you go into the next round, when you say you can continue to fight, with everything that’s happened, you’ve taken your time, and you continue the fight, that debt is paid,” he added.
“We’re now talking about a fighter that continues on for one minute and then goes in between the round and says he can’t continue. I am restricted at this point and then that becomes a TKO loss for Henry Cejudo. So the best thing in that moment that I can do, when I hear that, is I’m getting this guy to the cards. That’s the best I can do in this moment,” he continued. “Now I see your point, if you had taken a point there, then it would have been a draw.”
The official result saw Cejudo suffering a unanimous technical decision loss to Song. Had Herzog deducted a point from Song, it would’ve ended in a majority draw from 28-29, 28-29, and 27-30 in favor Song to 28-28, 28-28, and 27-29.
Watch the full interview below:
