John McCarthy Talks Herb Dean’s Controversial Stoppage At UFC Fight Island 3
John McCarthy has offered his opinion on Herb Dean’s seemingly late stoppage at UFC Fight Island 3.
Dean was the man in the middle when UFC newcomer Jai Herbert faced off against long-time lightweight contender Francisco Trinaldo in the featured preliminary bout of the night. In the third and final round the Brazilian caught Herbert with a punch on the top of the head and seemed to knock his opponent out. Dean refused to immediately wave off the fight and forced a confused Trinaldo was forced to land a few follow up shots before the referee finally stepped in to save the helpless Herbert.
Dan ‘The Outlaw’ Hardy who was commentating cage side was particularly unhappy with Dean and screamed for the fight to be stopped live on air. After the fight Dean appeared to approach Hardy and a heated debate ensued. The Englishman told Dean to do his job and protect the fighters after a second late call in the same night. Dean was late in stopping a heavyweight bout between Tanner Boser and Raphael Pessoa earlier in the night. He has since spoken publicly to defend allowing the lightweight fight to continue.
Former referee McCarthy addressed the controversial Trinaldo – Herbert stoppage during the latest episode of the “Weighing In” podcast with Josh Thomason, he said
“Jai’s really good. Really talented. Good movement, a nice smooth stand-up fighter and he did well in the clinches and stuff. He was fighting really well. But, Jai gets hit and the shot that hits him goes off basically the top of his forehead. The top of his head and you see him go stumble back and fall the way he did. It’s like he got hit in the head with a hammer. And you know as the referee it’s one of those… It is an oddity knockdown. Not your norm. But when he falls how did he fall? He fell going backwards and was he still there?”
“No.” Thomson replied.
“Doesn’t look like it,” McCarthy agreed. “But, when Herb Dean sees him he comes around and he sees him fall down like this (motioning straight back) and he sees him with his hands in a position to defend himself. So Herb is thinking (Herbert) can defend himself and Trinaldo just stopped. Now Trinaldo stopped because he is a competitor, a sportsman and felt like he’s out. I shouldn’t have to hit him again. But, he has to continue on. So the fact that Trinaldo didn’t immediately go after him, makes it now where Herb really can’t stop it, in a way, because he is saying he’s in there defending himself. Could he have stopped it? He could have. But, there would have been people complaining about him stopping it. There would have been people saying ‘Oh you didn’t give him the opportunity’ to try and you know work his way out.”
“So you’re in that can’t win. You know the fact that Dan Hardy is friends with Jai, likes him and watches him fight in England. Well he got all upset because his guy took extra shots and ok. But, if Dan Hardy was the guy who got hit and went down and someone stopped it, he would be standing up like Dominick Cruz. ‘You stopped it too soon!’. Can’t win.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)
Do you agree with John McCarthy? Was Herb Dean in a no win situation at UFC Fight Island?
