ABU DHABI — Dana White is deeply unhappy with some of the refereeing seen at UFC 251 on Saturday night.
The UFC president criticized the stoppage in the bantamweight title fight between Petr Yan and Jose Aldo. Yan stopped the Brazilian legend in the fifth round of their bout for the vacant 135-pound title.
The ending of the contest came after Aldo took many unanswered shots in turtle position while Yan pounded away on top. Aldo was covering up, but was doing very little to improve his position while he a received nonstop stream of punches and elbows and Aldo’s blood stained the mat a deep red.
The official stoppage of the fight came at the 3:24 mark of round five, but White thinks the stoppage should have came much sooner.
“Horrible, horrible stoppage by the referee,” White told reporters at the post-fight press conference. “It should’ve been stopped way sooner, you know. It looks like we have to tighten up our refs and judges here in ‘Fight Island.’”
Despite the ugly finish, the former UFC and WEC featherweight champion had his moments in the bout and looked competitive for the majority of the contest.
Yet, despite having a lengthy career, and going 0-3 in his last three trips to the octagon, White is not calling for Aldo’s retirement like he has for other aging champions in the company.
“I thought Aldo looked great for people that were criticizing him saying he doesn’t deserve another title shot,” White said.
“He fought the next guy lined up for a title shot and he looked damn good doing it, he can do whatever he wants.”
Dana White on referee stoppage in Petr Yan's win over Jose Aldo: 'Horrible, horrible'
