Daniel Cormier, like many, was not happy with the stoppage in the Jalin Turner vs. Bobby Green fight.
Saturday in the UFC on ESPN 52 co-main event, Green was viciously knocked out by Turner. Although Turner’s initial shots were damaging, it was the subsequent ground-and-pound that referee Kerry Hatley let continue that had people up in arms.
Turner badly hurt Green with a right hand, then dropped him to the canvas with a two-punch combination. Turner then jumped on top of Green and connected with more than a dozen unanswered shots. Cormier called it the worst stoppage in UFC history.
“Guys, I have said time and time again: When someone falls face down, there’s no need (for a standing 8-count) in boxing, and there is no need for follow-up shots (in MMA),” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “For some reason, the referee just doesn’t want to stop the fight. Bobby is laying flat on his belly, getting just hit over and over and over until eventually the referee mercifully stops the fight. I thought it was the worst stoppage in UFC history.”
Cormier, who was commentating the event alongside Michael Bisping and Brendan Fitzgerald, said it wasn’t only the commentators protesting about the lack of stoppage in real time. He also says the people in Moody Arena in Austin, Texas, also were concerned.
“The concern on everyone’s face octagon side was crazy,” Cormier said. “I saw a girl next to the octagon turn away. She turned away. Not a little girl – she’s a teenager, 19 or 20 – she turns away because she can’t watch what’s going on in the octagon. … He made a bad mistake. It was terrible. There was no reason for a guy to take that amount of damage after the fight was over. It was very clear that the fight was over.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 52.
