The best and worst from UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith

#1 Worst: Weird refereeing mars Askren vs. Lawler

Herb Dean may have botched the finish to the Ben Askren/Robbie Lawler fight

The long-awaited UFC debut of Ben Askren didn’t take long to become a farce, unfortunately. It was a hugely exciting fight, but whether it should’ve ended in the way it did – and whether it should’ve ended in favour of Askren – is massively up for debate.

It could definitely be argued, for instance, that referee Herb Dean should’ve called the fight off when Lawler slammed Askren onto his head and then followed up with some bombs in the opening seconds of the fight.

Dean let the fight go, though, and to be fair to Askren he showed insane toughness to be able to get back to his feet after the barrage. Even more miraculously, Askren managed to secure a bodylock on Lawler and eventually found his way into a rear waistlock, where he applied a bulldog choke to the former champion.

Seconds later, the fight was over, as Herb Dean felt that Lawler had been choked unconscious. That clearly wasn’t the case, though, as ‘Ruthless Robbie’ quickly popped up to his feet and seemed fine. Quite what really happened is anyone’s guess – Lawler’s arm did appear to go limp for a second, but by the point that Dean stepped in he appeared to be moving again.

It’s hard to truly criticise Dean for the gaffe as MMA refereeing is an incredibly difficult job at the best of times, but in hindsight he should probably have given Lawler more time to escape the position – or be choked unconscious – before he stepped in. As it is now, questions still abound over how good Askren can be at the UFC level. Perhaps a rematch would work?