UFC 178 delivered on a variety of levels, but it was not without a bit of controversy.
Typically, controversy in the UFC comes by way of a stoppage that was too early or a poor scorecard courtesy of the judges. On Saturday, controversy came by way of some confusion and old-school corner tricks.
In the second round of the Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero bout, Kennedy hurt Romero with uppercuts. He tried to finish, and he was close to doing just that. Romero was rocked, but he was saved by the bell.
Romero made his way to the corner, sat on the stool and was tended to by the cutman.
Once the minute between rounds passed, Romero’s corner was still in the cage, the cutman left a gob of Vaseline on Romero’s face and Romero remained seated on the stool.
The corner was ushered out of the cage by the commission official, but they were slow to do so. They were buying time for their hurt fighter to recover—an old trick, but one that was effective on Saturday. Referee John McCarthy called in the cutman to wipe off some Vaseline and forced Romero up off the stool.
Should McCarthy have stopped the bout at this time? Did Romero have the presence of mind to even know what was occurring? Did the language barrier play a role? All good questions, but none matter now.
Romero and Kennedy continued on with their fight, and Romero landed the fight-altering punch to drop Kennedy. Romero pounced with ground-and-pound to get the stoppage victory. It was a confusing bit between the rounds, but Romero persevered and got the win.
Backstage, Kennedy confronted Romero about the stool incident and took to Twitter as well:
On the Fox Sports 1 post-fight show Brian Stann and Chris Weidman discussed the incident and admitted that of all those involved, no fault is on the shoulder of Romero. It comes down to his corner and the commission officials.
If Kennedy goes before the commission to challenge the result of the fight, it is hard to see how they will overturn the result. There are too many factors that play in to what happened to suggest outright chicanery from Romero and his team.
Where does the UFC go from here?
A rematch might play well, but the finish to the fight was definitive. Romero won by TKO.
Kennedy’s performance should keep him in the mix for a top-10 bout, and Romero will now possibly become a title contender. There are many fighters ahead of him, but his wrestling credentials and age mean the UFC should likely pull the trigger on him sooner rather than later if they view him as a viable contender.
The middleweight division is looking for new faces, and the result on Saturday—whether you agree with it or not—adds more intrigue to Romero and Kennedy both. The division needs intrigue. The controversial result at UFC 178 gives the organization two fighters with a little extra story for their next fights.
Does controversy create cash? We will see when Romero makes his next walk to the cage, but at UFC 178 he got a win that he may not have completely deserved.
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