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Dominick Cruz Maintains Keith Peterson ‘100%’ Stopped His Fight With Henry Cejudo Prematurely

Former WEC and UFC bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz returns on March 6 at UFC 259 — headlining the preliminary portion of the card against the streaking Casey Kenney, but a certain chip appears to remain on his shoulder following his knockout loss to former titleholder, Henry Cejudo last May. Replacing former featherweight kingpin, Jose Aldo […]

Replacing former featherweight kingpin, Jose Aldo on short-notice at UFC 249, Cruz made his Octagon return for the first time in three years following his title loss to Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207 — clashing with Cejudo for the bantamweight crown.

Dropping just his third professional loss against the former two-weight world champion and Olympic gold medalist, Cruz suffered a second round knockout defeat after eating catching a knee on the entry, before subsequent ground strikes. With just two-seconds remaining before the klaxon would sound, referee Keith Peterson separated the two — with Cejudo wheeling away in celebration.

Speaking with UFC reporter, Megan Olivi afterwards, Cruz voiced his displeasure with Peterson’s stoppage, before controversially claiming the official had smelled “like alcohol and cigarettes“ backstage as he gave his pre-fight instructions and laid out the ruleset. The San Diego native also questioned if it would be possible to veto a referee from officiating your fight in the future.

Touching on the stoppage defeat to Cejudo during a recent interview with ESPN MMA reporter, Ariel Helwani, Cruz claimed once more that Peterson stopped his fight prematurely.

“I believe Keith Peterson gave him (Henry Cejudo) a nice gift with that (stoppage),” Cruz said. “I was, you know — yeah I got hurt and I shouldn’t have put myself in that position but I was — if you talk to the refs, and you talk to anybody — you have a couple things you need to do in order to keep the fight going. You need to be defending yourself and you need to be working into a better position. I was doing both of those things when the fight got stopped.“

“You can’t be knocked out when you’re standing up on your feet while someone’s hanging on you — like I was okay. So it was hard for me to get stopped when it wasn’t — it was a premature stoppage 100%. I don’t believe I lost that fight, I believe Keith Peterson took that fight. Now I say that, in the midst of somebody who always takes responsibility for their losses. I lost to Cody Garbrandt. I think I probably won two out of five of those rounds against Cody, but he won three out of five, so I would say he won that fight. And I take responsibility for losing that fight (against Garbrandt). This fight (against Cejudo) was different — that’s what was tough about it.“

Cruz also explained how whilst he respects the athletic commission’s decision no matter what the outcome may be, he plans to request that Peterson doesn’t officiate his March 6 outing against Kenney.

“I’m gonna definitely request — and I can only hope and pray that the commission honours my request to not have him (Keith Peterson) in my corner — or refereeing my fight,” Cruz told. “I can’t guarantee it, the commission does whatever they want and I respect them and their decisions, but I don’t believe he’s a competent ref with the way he treated my fight and the way he treated it before the fight happened.“

“The way that I saw him going through the rules in the back — I’ve never had a referee that I’ve had to say, ‘hold on, hold on, stop. Can you start all over again? I can’t understand anything you’re saying. And you’re not looking me in the eyes, are you here? Are you present?’ And I don’t know if he was nervous, or if he had something going on — but I never dealt with that. I’ve had twenty fights, twenty-five fights close to.“

Urijah Faber Agrees With Dominick Cruz About Early UFC 249 Stoppage

Faber Cruz Urijah Faber doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with Dominick Cruz, but he can sympathize with the latter’s frustration about his latest defeat. Cruz returned to action at UFC 249 last weekend as he looked to reclaim the bantamweight title from Henry Cejudo. However, after getting dropped by a knee and receiving a number of unanswered shots […]

Urijah Faber doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with Dominick Cruz, but he can sympathize with the latter’s frustration about his latest defeat.

Cruz returned to action at UFC 249 last weekend as he looked to reclaim the bantamweight title from Henry Cejudo. However, after getting dropped by a knee and receiving a number of unanswered shots while he was trying to get up, referee Keith Peterson called an end to the contest with just seconds remaining in the second round.

Cruz protested immediately and was not happy with the call. He went on to accuse Peterson of smelling like cigarettes and alcohol after the fight which has drawn plenty of criticism from many in the combat sports world, though Cruz hasn’t backed down from his comments as of yet.

Faber has endured his own problems with early stoppages in the past and believes some leeway should be given, especially in big championship fights.

“The referees are in there to do their job and save guys from taking too much damage,” Faber said during a post-fight scrum at UFC Florida last night (via Bloody Elbow). “But at the end of the day, especially in world championship fights when you’re dealing with guys that are future Hall-of-Famers and multiple time world champions, we want to remove all doubt. We want to know, like, ‘I had no more chance.’

“So I feel for him on that. I feel like he could’ve still had a chance, and that’s always the part that irks you. So I can understand his frustration.”

As for Cruz’s allegation, Faber finds it hard to believe Peterson was inebriated.

“I doubt that Keith Peterson was drunk,” Faber said. “He might’ve been sweating some alcohol and definitely smelling some cigarettes, but I don’t think he was drunk. He was trying to look after Dom.”

Faber: Cruz Looked Good At UFC 249

That said, he does believe his old rival looked good despite competing for the first time since December 2016.

“I thought he looked good,” Faber added. “You never know how people are ageing, everybody’s different, but he’s got a style that lends to a long career.

“It makes me more and more impressed with Henry Cejudo, what a champion. It’s hard to take him serious sometimes, but you’re forced to when he keeps doing what he’s doing.”

What do you make of Faber’s comments?

Dominick Cruz Trolls Keith Peterson By Praising UFC Florida Referee

Cruz ‘Loving’ UFC Florida Referee Dominick Cruz threw some shade Keith Peterson’s way during UFC Florida last night. Cruz made headlines at UFC 249 last week when he accused Peterson of smelling like alcohol and cigarettes after he felt the referee stopped his bantamweight title fight with Henry Cejudo too early. “That was an early […]

Cruz ‘Loving’ UFC Florida Referee

Dominick Cruz threw some shade Keith Peterson’s way during UFC Florida last night.

Cruz made headlines at UFC 249 last week when he accused Peterson of smelling like alcohol and cigarettes after he felt the referee stopped his bantamweight title fight with Henry Cejudo too early.

“That was an early stoppage, 100 percent – I’m positive of it,” he said. “I wish there was a way to keep these refs a little more responsible sometimes. The guy smelled like alcohol and cigarettes, so who knows what he was doing. Definitely (he did). I wish they drug tested them.”

While fighters tend to make excuses in the heat of the moment, Cruz didn’t back down — in fact, he doubled down on his accusations a few days later.

And when another referee in Dan Miragliotta let the action go on in the main event between Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris at UFC Florida when other referees may have stopped the fight at certain points, Cruz decided to give him props on social media.

“Loving this ref send him a gift basket ”

As of now, Peterson is yet to publicly respond to Cruz’s allegations.

However, there wouldn’t be a way to prove he was drinking regardless, especially as other referees such as Herb Dean refuted the claims.

What do you make of Cruz’s tweet?

Herb Dean Responds To Dominick Cruz’s Claim That Keith Peterson Smelled Like Alcohol & Cigarettes

Herb Dean has weighed in on a claim Dominick Cruz has made about another referee. Dean has been highly regarded as a referee in the sport of MMA. Following his UFC 249 loss to Henry Cejudo, Cruz said he wishes Dean was the third man inside the Octagon….

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Dominick Cruz Blasts Referee Following UFC 249 Loss

Dominick Cruz is not happy with his TKO loss to Henry Cejudo at UFC 249. Cruz challenged Cejudo for the UFC bantamweight championship last night (May 9). This was Cruz’s first bout since Dec. 2016 when he lost the 135-pound title to Cody Garbrand…

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