Dober victim of possibly worst stoppage in UFC history
Referees might have one of the most thankless jobs in all of sports, but Brazilian official Eduardo Herdy managed to pull off one of the worst stoppages in the history of mixed martial arts at UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. LaFlare on Saturday night.
The call in question came during the preliminary fights airing on FOX Sports 2 as American fighter Drew Dober took on Leandro Silva in a bout at 155 pounds.
Silva was fishing for a guillotine choke after dropping to the mat with Dober's neck secured in his arm. To his credit, Dober defended well and moved his body to the correct side to stave off being caught in the choke.
It was clear Silva was losing his grip on the submission as Dober continued to work free, but in a bizarre move from out of nowhere, Herdy stepped in and touched the fighters as if to motion that he was standing them up.
In reality, Herdy was actually stopping the fight due to submission despite the fact that Dober never tapped and was in no significant danger of being choked out from the hold.
"You train. You put your heart, your soul, you bleed, you cry, and the referee stops the fight for no reason," Dober said after the fight. "He said that I needed to tap three times, and I did not tap once."
For his part, Silva believes Dober went unconscious from the choke, although in multiple replays from different angles at no point did it appear Dober was actually in any real trouble. FOX color commentator Kenny Florian, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, even noted just before the stoppage that Dober was defending the move properly and would soon be out of Silva's grip.
"For me, he blacked out," Silva said after the fight. "A win is a win, and that is what I was looking for. I want to show to the UFC that I can be one of the best in my division, and I will prove it inside the Octagon."
Following the fight, Dober was all class despite the sour turn of events as he thanked the Brazilian crowd for their hospitality and offered to come back to rematch Silva in the future.
If there's one good piece of news for Dober, it's this -- according to MMAJunkie.com, UFC president Dana White will pay him his win money for the fight while also stating he believes the bout should be overturned to a no contest.
There's little doubt Dober and his team will contest the decision and then it becomes the Brazilian MMA Commission's job to decide whether or not the win will stand.
