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Edmen Shahbazyan suffered the first loss of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career this past Sat. night (Aug. 1, 2020) at UFC Vegas 5, losing to Derek Brunson via third round knockout inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
But the fight almost never made it out of the second round, as Brunson dropped some bombs on “The Golden Boy” in the closing seconds. And with another second or two, Shahbazyan could have very well been done for.
Before round three began, Herb Dean called for time right in order to allow the cageside doctor to check on Shahbazyan. It was a move that didn’t sit too well with UFC president Dana White, who told reporters during the post-fight presser that the doctor took too much time inspecting the fighter and to come to a decision about letting him continue. It was his indecisiveness that prompted White to believe that he doesn’t have a ton of experience.
“Shahbazyan looked like he was out at the end of that round. Think that the doctor could have stopped it. First of all, the doctor’s obviously inexperienced; I don’t know anything about the doctor, but I haven’t seen him before,” White said via MMA Fighting.
“You’ve got Brunson, who ends that round strong, [and] many could argue that fight could have been stopped right there at the end of the round. I’m sure ref thought the guy would have time to go back [and recover].”
The other problem White had was the fact that not only did Shahbazyan get more time to recover, but it could have taken some of the momentum and adrenaline Brunson had going after nearly getting the job done.
“What you don’t do is talk to the guy for f**king 10 minutes while he’s hurt. Either stop the fight, or let him continue but go. You’re letting the kid recover while you’ve got Brunson, who just did that work, and he’s waiting for the bell to ring so that he can go in and finish the fight. Pull the trigger one way or the other. Stop the fight or don’t.”
Fortunately it didn’t affect Derrick too much as he went on to finish Shahbazyan in the final round to score his third straight win, handing “The Golden Boy” the first loss of his pro career, which also put a big damper in his championship aspirations.
Do you think White has a legit gripe here?