UFC Louisville Ends With A Horrible Referee Stoppage In The Main Event

These blogs always suck to write, but unfortunately, we just got another horrible referee stoppage to end a pretty good UFC main event! 

I feel like this is sorta MMA's version of boxing's crooked judges and bad decisions - not that we don't have those in mixed martial arts as well, but the bad stoppages are just way more frequent, and consistently cast dark shadows over otherwise enjoyable events. This one comes from Jason Herzog, who is usually pretty great, but he just didn't give Jared Cannonier anywhere near enough room to fight back against Nassourdine Imavov tonight. He also inserted himself a few times early to warn Imavov against eye pokes before they even happened, and kinda just made Louisville a ref show for no reason. Bummer.

Don't get me wrong, when it comes to the finish, Cannonier was clearly rocked badly - but the guy never even went down! He was keeping his hands up and even returning fire when Herzog stepped in! In a main event like this, which was super close and back-and-forth up to this point, you gotta extend that leash a little more. You just have to. I actually wonder if refs realize they fuck up when they call a fight and the losing athlete can immediately have a rational conversation with them about why they stopped it like this. I sure hope so.

Imavov called for a fight with Sean Strickland in Paris next - which he obviously won't get, because Strickland plans on waiting around for another title shot (one that he's already earned) - but hopefully they give him a worthy opponent on that card anyway. It's always great seeing the French react to a hometown fighter; they've got some of the best crowds in the world right now.