Minus the commercials, UFC on Versus 6 was jam packed with great fights and nonstop action, but there were a few bouts marred by a certain degree of controversy.
The bouts that stand out most are the preliminary lightweight scrap between TJ Grant and Shane Roller and the main card welterweight bout between Anthony Johnson and Charlie Brenneman.
In the Grant and Roller bout, Grant made a beautiful transition from a guillotine choke attempt to an armbar.
Referee Fernando Yamasaki was overseeing the action.
There was no doubt that the hold was locked in tight. Roller, who attempted to clasp his hands together to defend, wasn’t even in a position to tap, and he would’ve had to call out to the referee to stop the action. After hearing a grunt or a yell, Yamasaki stopped the fight to protect Roller’s arm from being broken.
Seeing as he didn’t actually tap from the hold, Roller and attending fans were extremely upset with the stoppage.
It wouldn’t be the only questionable stoppage that night.
Longtime MMA referee Mario Yamasaki oversaw the Johnson and Brenneman bout. Johnson, an abnormally large welterweight with jarring power, had Brenneman on wobbly every time he landed on the feet.
At about the halfway mark in the first round, Johnson landed a huge kick that dropped Brenneman instantly. As soon as Brenneman touched the canvas, Yamasaki stepped in and stopped the fight.
It was tough stoppage for Brenneman, who was clearly conscious when the bout was stopped.
“Everybody on Twitter was crying about that stoppage. I agree 100 percent with that stoppage. First of all, he was on crazy legs before the kick to the head even happened. There’s a fine line between stop too early and stop too late. I’ll take stop too early every time over stop too late,” UFC President Dana White said at the post-fight press conference.
A bout that ended up on the opposite end of the spectrum was the final preliminary bout between Yves Edwards and Rafaello Oliveira.
After getting stunned in the second round, Oliveira took an unnecessary amount of extra punishment from Edwards before the fight was stopped. Interestingly enough, Mario Yamasaki was the referee in that bout as well.
With that said, fans have to understand that referees are there to protect the fighters. They understand that fighters train hard, and you want to always give a guy a chance to fight out of a position and come back.
It’s a tough job, and there will surely be hiccups from time to time.
There has never been a death or serious injury inside the UFC octagon, and whether you agree with the refs or not, you have to like those statistics.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com