John McCarthy Weighs-In On Cejudo vs. Dillashaw Early Stoppage: ‘I Wouldn’t Have Stopped It At That Point.’

Legendary Referee John Mccarthy Offers His Take On Controversial Henry vs. Dillashaw Stoppage

It’s well known now that Henry Cejudo delivered a spectacular performance in the main headliner of UFC Brooklyn by knocking out current bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw with strikes just 32 seconds into round one to cement his legacy on Jan 19.

After the fight ended the talk of controversial stoppage was making rounds on social media.

According to Cejudo, he believes that stoppage as justified but Many in MMA community including furious TJ Dillashaw who said Henry didn’t win that stoppage was complete bullshit and demands an immediate rematch. UFC head honcho Dana White also agrees with bantamweight champion that the stoppage as horrible.

Legendary referee “Big” John McCarthy who now serves as a cage-side commentator for Bellator, seems to be on the side of a majority of MMA community on this matter. McCarthy said that if he were officiating the Henry vs. Cejudo, he wouldn’t interrupt the fight too early as referee Kevin McDonald did. (h/t MMAFighting)

“When you say ‘good stoppage, bad stoppage,’ I’m not into saying what’s good or bad,” McCarthy said of the Henry Cejudo vs. TJ Dillashaw stoppage. “Kevin made a decision. It’s his decision, he’s the one that’s got to live with his decision, along with TJ and the UFC themselves.

“If you’re going to ask me, there’s things that I want a referee to think about,” he continued. “If you’re going to ask me would I have stopped it at that point, no. I wouldn’t have stopped it at that point. This is the reason why: this is not a fight between two guys who are just brought together like ‘oh we’re going to match this fight up,’ whatever fight it is. It’s not, you know, Fighter A against Fighter B. This is a fight where both guys have earned the right to be in the position. They’ve both created a background that’s put them in the position of being champions, and now these are champions going after each other — one to save his entire weight class basically, the other to prove ‘those guys are not as good as me.’

“You look what happens. That fight is a young fight. It’s 25 seconds [in]. When Henry hits TJ with a shot, it hurts him, now doubt about it. It puts him down. When you’re a referee you’ve got to understand certain things. What you’ve got to understand is, I’ve got two guys who are champions. Not all fights are the same. You’re going hear a lot of referees go ‘you referee every fight the same,’ but I’m going to tell you, that’s a referee that has no clue what they’re doing.

“TJ, you see, reaching, he’s got the leg [after he was dropped]. He’s trying to collect himself and you’ve got to give him that opportunity, because again, he’s got a full tank of gas. He hasn’t received damage over a couple of rounds. It wasn’t like he was exhausted. Those are elements you factor in when you decide if you’re going to stop a fight or not.”

While referee MacDonald stepped in to intervene the fight to save Dillashaw from unnecessary damage. An argument made here that super fight should be allowed to continue little longer as compared to usual contests. Of course, fighters safety comes first, but here Dillashaw recovers quickly and asking a rematch.

It’s hard to say if UFC is open to redoing that task as they are already looking to kill the flyweight division. However, Cejudo has already put his terms that he’s ready for a rematch if it’s for the 135-pound title.

Do you agree with John McCarthy’s statement on Henry vs. Cejudo stoppage?

Published on January 26, 2019 at 10:27 am
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