Ray Longo explains decision to not stop Weidman bout sooner at UFC 194
Last Saturday night, UFC 194's co-main event should have been stopped in the third round. Defending middleweight champion Chris Weidman was taken down, dominated and pounded on by Luke Rockhold for almost a full minute.
Mounted, Weidman was unable to improve his position at all as he ate dozens of punches and elbows to the head. Referee Herb Dean watched on but let Weidman get beaten until the horn, ending the round.
Weidman had trouble getting to his feet, his face bruised, bloodied. His brain having just been shaken around inside its cage, he wobbled over to his corner where coach Ray Longo received him, and then sent him out for the fourth round.
"Nobody is going to argue, if Herb Dean would've stopped that fight," Longo told Jon Anik and Kenny Florian, after the fight.
Weidman went out for the fourth round but was quickly taken down once more and beaten on some more. That time, Dean stopped it much more quickly, convinced Weidman had nothing left.
Dean could have stopped it during the third round, and Longo could have stopped it in between the third and fourth. Clearly, Longo, Matt Serra and all of Weidman's corners (one being his own father) felt horrible watching the All-American take damage.
But, they tried their best to act on his wishes, instead of looking to stop him earlier. "You know these guys give me pretty strict orders never to ever do that," Longo said of stopping bouts for injured fighters.
"So I know that with Matt [Serra] ... I think I made the mistake of asking him once one fight and he almost blew a gasket off his seat ... Knowing who Chris is, I would never count him out."
It's a tough call. Sometimes corners need to do things that make their fighters mad at them.
Now that the fight is over, however, Team Weidman needs to rest and regroup. Longo, for one, doesn't think that his man looked normal last week.
"I didn't think Chris looked like himself," he concluded.
"I know he didn't and I haven't really talked to him yet, but I'll talk to him and we'll figure some stuff out."
