Rodriguez Defends Herman Over Referee Ball Call

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

UFC light heavyweight Mike Rodriguez ruined Ed Herman with a knee to the body at the UFC Vegas 10 event last weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, which referee Chris Tognoni mistook for a low blow and prompted a halt to the action.

Herman, who was in all sorts of trouble, used the timeout to recover from the assault, despite the fact that he was never entitled to a break in the first place. “Short Fuse” managed to battle back and win the fight by submission in the final frame.

“I would just say it happened, it was an awkward moment in our sport,” Rodriguez told MMA Fighting. “We should just accept and move right along. Don’t send Ed Herman no hate messages or anything. Please don’t. He’s a good dude. All he did was get an opportunity and capitalize on it. That was it.”

The combat sports community was quick to crucify both Herman and Tognoni following the “Sin City” fight card. In fact, UFC President Dana White was so irate he promised to award Rodriguez his “win” purse to compensate for the second-round screw job.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, just wants to focus on his next fight.

“I’m just already like, I’m past it, I’m ready to fight again,” Rodriguez continued. “I’m over and done with it. If you look at it, he won, technically, but technically he didn’t. So I don’t know, I’m just moving on from the whole situation.”

The Rodriguez team has appealed the official decision.