Tom Wright, the UFC’s managing director for operations in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, isn’t going come out to a press conference and drop a bombastic quote like his boss, Dana White.
But even he could see that Stipe Miocic’s UFC Fight Night 65 main event against Mark Hunt should have been stopped far sooner than the fifth round.
“They probably could have stopped it sooner,” Wright said from the podium at the post-fight press conference in Adelaide, Australia.
Hunt was on the wrong end of the most strikes landed in UFC history in getting outstruck 361-46 over the course of four-and-a-half rounds. But neither referee John Sharp, nor the cageside doctor, nor Hunt’s corner saw fit to stop a fight which could have been stopped as early as the third round.
Wright, though, wasn’t about to throw Sharp under the bus.
“In the end, I’m not standing right on top of these two guys. Mark Hunt is as tough as they come and Stipe demonstrated his skills. It is what it is and you can’t change it now.
For his part, Miocic was too busy trying to finish the fight to think about whether or not it should have been stopped.
“I saw that I was winning, and I was going to keep going forward until I stopped the fight or until I got the decision. I didn’t care. Of course I was looking for the finish, but he’s a tough guy. That’s why it went as long as it did.”
From a local hospital, Hunt posted to his Facebook “The old warhorse got beaten up sorry was to tired big mistake to be tired wen u facing the top end congrats stipe well done mate thanks for everyone’s support.”