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#1 Worst: Bad refereeing mars the undercard
Ten-year UFC veteran CB Dollaway was already in a weird place coming into last night’s show. Initially pegged to face Omari Akhmedov, when the Dagestani withdrew with an injury he was replaced by Artem Frolov – for about three days that is – until Frolov backed out and was replaced by newcomer Khalid Murtazaliev. If anyone thought those changes would help Dollaway, they were mistaken.
Dollaway simply didn’t look anything like the fighter who was once a contender at 185lbs – he looked sluggish and jaded from the off and when Murtazaliev landed a big body kick midway through the opening round, it was all downhill for him. By the latter part of the second round, Dollaway was trapped on the ground simply covering up, taking punch after punch from the newcomer.
If the fight had been stopped there it really wouldn’t warrant a mention, but with about 45 seconds to go, for reasons unknown referee Herb Dean allowed Dollaway to take probably somewhere between 20 and 30 un-needed strikes. Even when the buzzer sounded for the end of the round, Dean was asking Dollaway if he could continue and only ended the fight when ‘The Doberman’ confirmed otherwise.
It was a largely rare gaffe for Dean, who is usually one of the more solid officials inside the UFC, and was up there with the worst refereeing calls in MMA history. The only defense I can think of for his call is that perhaps he felt Murtazaliev’s punches weren’t coming with much power as he was tired. Either way though, this was a stain on the card, and a stain on a promotion which has always prided itself on fighter safety.
