Big John McCarthy may be the best referee in combat sports, but he got “owned” on Saturday night at UFC 178, according to Tim Kennedy.
The legendary referee is being blamed for the unintentional hand he had in “Stoolgate,” a controversial incident that occurred in the main card bout between top middleweight contenders Kennedy and Yoel Romero.
Early on, it was business as usual in the cage.
Romero’s overbearing strength and athleticism appeared to be too much for Kennedy, who got picked apart on the feet for most of the first round. Things got a bit more interesting in the second round, as Romero began to tire and become a bit sluggish with his punches.
Sensing an opportunity to turn the tables, Kennedy became more offensive toward the end of the round with a series of uppercuts that sent Romero wobbling to the fence. The U.S. military vet did everything in his power to finish the fight, but Romero clung to dear life just in time to hear the bell sound.
Fighters are given a minute in between rounds to rest and strategize with their coaches. At the 50-second mark, the corner is expected to remove the stool from the cage to ensure that the break doesn’t surpass the strictly enforced time limit.
But this didn’t happen in the Kennedy-Romero bout. Moments after getting rocked by Kennedy, Romero sat on his stool for an additional 28 seconds past the allotted minute before McCarthy finally stepped in to clear the cage. The extra time proved to be just enough to give Romero a chance to recover.
In truly stunning fashion, he came out in the third round and stopped Kennedy via strikes. There is plenty of blame to go around, but at the end of the day, the onus falls on the shoulders of the referee, who is the only source of order in the cage.
Kennedy discussed the matter with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour:
Everything that they did was calculated and planned, from the extra Vaseline to throwing in towels to dumping bottles of water on the floor to leaving the stool in there.
…I think John is the best ref in the promotions. He and Herb Dean, truly, I have great respect for. He f—-d up majorly in my fight. He’s the best ref in the world. He got owned that night by a bunch of guys doing shady things. He got played by all three of them and he just let it happen.
Kennedy claims Romero tried to apologize after the fight, but his attempts to reconcile for the incident obviously didn’t go over well, as evident from the backstage video captured by the UFC Espanol Vine page.
As for the infamous glove grab during the fight, Kennedy admits to having no recollection of it happening. The Jackson’s MMA fighter could clearly be seen grabbing Romero’s glove while landing a series of uppercuts that nearly ended the fight.
Obviously, two wrongs don’t make a right, but Kennedy maintains the stance that the glove grab was an unintentional foul while milking the clock is intentional and calculated.
“They are dynamically different things,” Kennedy said. “I’m sorry if I grabbed his wrist or glove; I had zero intent to do that. I wanted to knock him out, not by grabbing anything but by putting my fist in his face.”
There were talks about Kennedy possibly appealing the fight in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. However, NSAC executive director Bob Bennett told Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com that cases such as these are very seldom overturned.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
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