At UFC Brooklyn (UFC on ESPN+), Henry Cejudo stopped TJ Dillashaw in about 30 seconds. After the bout, UFC President Dana White heavily criticized referee Kevin MacDonald for, in his estimation, calling the fight far too early.
White argued the New York commission made a mistake by putting an allegedly inexperienced referee in a high-stakes situation above their professional capabilities. The truth is, however, MacDonald has been refereeing for 15 years. While I agree the stoppage was not great, it wasn’t terrible either. It was OK and while that’s cold comfort, it’s also not a place worth getting irate.
The question is: how HURT do we need a fighter to be to be stopped? I think I'd much rather fighters were hurt slightly less than they could be (safely) for the purposes of my entertainment. TJ was caught cold, it was early, it's never ideal… Mma might want to take into account the 8 count, where a fighter has a window to survive. However, mma may also want to look at how many MORE deaths there are, statiscally, in boxing. I'd much rather a healthy TJ fights another day and doesn't have long term effects. Any fighter. For the purposes of my entertainment.
TJ never should have been in the position he was in (eating shots on the ground)…in my opinion he was too weak in there because of the weight drop which resulted in him falling over from a light Cejudo shove…
The interesting thing is the last several punches didn't even hit flush. It looked like he was going to stop it before that. I would have liked to see what could have happened. TJ wasn't out of the of the fight. At least not with any degree of certainty. Fortunately espn + had a free trial or else Henry fans would be upset as well. The fans were robbed by the ref. TJ was robbed by the ref. Even Henry was robbed by the ref since he wasn't allowed win without doubt.
TJ dies in the rematch just for his ghost to haunt Ariel about it being an early stoppage
It was a great stoppage . It only looked quick on first glance because of the speed Cejudo was working at. But TJ got dropped 3 times and was still taking big shots, the referee had to step in
Your a company man
View the footage again, preferably from a bird's eye view on fight pass. There was no single leg attempt until AFTER the ref stopped it and Cejudo let TJ go, and it still wasn't anywhere near Cejudo. It wasn't an early stoppage. TJ was defending himself and covering up on the wrong side from shots that never came. He was in la-la land.
I actually completely agree with this. I didn’t see it as an egregious stoppage. I understand the frustration from TJ because like you said, only he knows how truly rocked he was. However, watching live and watching the replay, I see this as an acceptable stoppage.
The rule isn't if you can recover you can keep fighting. If your legs no longer work then you cant intelligently defend yourself. He fell forward that will usually get the fight stopped. I was cheering for TJ but it is what it is.
He was getting dropped by shots that weren't clean or were partially blocked. A clean shot prob woulda turned out his lights