Dana White called referee Chris Tognoni’s decision to call a time out during Ed Herman vs Mike Rodriguez “The most disgusting thing he’s ever seen”. The controversial time out happened in the 2nd round after Rodriguez hit Herman with what at first looked like a groin strike, but after the replay was clearly a knee to the stomach. Herman used the timeout to recover, finished the 2nd round, and ended the fight with a submission in the 3rd round.

Dana White was asked about the controversy during the post fight press conference and said the call by the ref was “That was a Mazzagatti moment right there for that guy. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It was over, the fight was finished. That’s like him being knocked out and f**king lets give him time to fight again. As soon as he stood up his whole side of his body was as red as red could be.”

According to The Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports, a referee may only use Instant Replay when he/she feels that a “Fight Ending Sequence” was possibly caused by an illegal action (foul) whether intentional or unintentional. This was not the case though, and the fight should’ve been ended by TKO, not give Herman time to recover from a groin strike that never happened. Dana White announced during the press conference that Rodriguez will receive the win portion of his salary.