White blasts referee for Silva-Roberts stoppage at UFC London

UFC president Dana White was not pleased about referee Kevin Sataki’s officiating during UFC London’s main card fight between Claudio Silva and Danny Roberts.

UFC president Dana White is known to be vocal about officiating controversies. Another one took place during one of the main card fights at UFC London between welterweights Danny Roberts and Claudio Silva.

The fight ended with Silva winning via armbar from Roberts’ supposed verbal stoppage. But as seen on video, Roberts was already out of the threat of the submission when the fight was stopped by referee Kevin Sataki.

During his post-fight interview with Dan Hardy, a visibly frustrated Roberts admitted he may have made some grunts of discomfort, but was in complete disagreement with the stoppage.

“I know I still had that,” Roberts said. “The ref stopped it at the time when I escaped. I’m just got gutted. I’m disappointed, I’m gutted. All I can say is that I will be back better and stronger, but I know up until that point, I’m fighting.

“I will fight for my life in there because this is all I know. You need to understand that. So at that point, when the ref stopped that, I was already out of that armbar. I had already transitioned to the other side, and I was OK. Yeah, I made noise, I might have grunted, it hurt. But I was ready to come out and carry on to the bitter end and the end of the third round.

“We had him finished, I wasn’t done. I’m just gutted that it stopped when it did.”

White later expressed his post-fight sentiments through Instagram.

Kills me when these refs F—K UP and steal such a great fight and opportunity from the not just the fighters but the fans!!!!! @danhotchocolate SO SORRY!!!!! #ESPN+

The loss snapped Roberts’ two-fight win streak, as he now holds a record of 16-4 (with 12 wins by stoppage).