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UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith says that a referee should not be officiating a fight if he does not want to make difficult decisions. He is referring to Aljamain Sterling's situation at UFC 259.
"Lionheart" gave his two cents on the Aljamain Sterling-Petr Yan situation in a recent interview with James Lynch. Smith criticized referee Mark Smith for forcing Aljamain Sterling to decide between continuing the fight after getting hit with an illegal knee strike in the bantamweight title bout.
"My problem is that Aljo should have never had to make that decision. What you should be doing is you know what the fighter looks like when they're injured. You should know when it changes... Mark Smith (referee) should know that... They just want to pass the buck because they don't want to deal with it. So go ahead, please bring the doctor... If that's the problem then the doctor should be the goddamn referee. It drives me crazy like if you're not gonna make those hard decisions then what are you doing? Honestly, at the end of the day., we don't need you," Anthony Smith said.
Defending bantamweight champion Petr Yan landed an illegal knee strike on Aljamain Sterling's jaw due to miscommunication with his cornermen in the fourth round of their UFC 259 title fight. Referee Mark Smith then called the cageside doctor to take a look at the Sterling. The referee and doctor assessed the situation and asked Sterling to decide whether or not he was in the condition to resume action. "Funkmaster" refused to continue, prompting the referee to award Sterling the win by way of disqualification.
Aljamain Sterling became the first champion in UFC history to win a title via disqualification. The MMA community has questioned rules that put the responsibility of this kind of decision into the hands of a fighter who is obviously not in a condition to do so. The fact that Petr Yan was winning the fight prior to the pause in action has added fuel to the fire and hurt the legitimacy of Sterling's win.
Anthony Smith has been in Aljamain Sterling's shoes
Anthony Smith's reaction to the situation stems from the fact that he was put in the same situation as Aljamain Sterling during his light heavyweight title fight against champion Jon Jones at UFC 235 in 2019. Smith was hit with an illegal strike from the champ but chose to continue the fight rather than take the disqualification. "Lionheart" was praised by the MMA community for not capitalizing on the situation to get away with a win. UFC president Dana White acknowledged Anthony Smith's actions during the post-fight press conference.
"It's always difficult when somebody does that. But It's a weasel move if you try to weasel out of the fight if you're not really hurt and try to win the fight that way. You did not win the fight. And much respect to Anthony Smith for being the stand-up guy like that. He could've done it (taking the disqualification win)," Dana White said.
