If you were watching the UFC this past weekend, you probably saw the lightweight matchup between Drew Dober and Leandro Silva that resulted in a controversial referee stoppage favoring the Brazilian Silva.
Much has been made about the stoppage by referee Eduardo Herdy. Herdy stopped the fight while Dober was actually in an ever improving situation, getting his head out of a guillotine and about to be established in top position. Herdy jumped in, and in the moments of confusion around the stoppage, Herdy decided he was right and firmly called a halt to the contest. He has been the subject of constant derision since, and match winner Silva didn’t win any points for his post fight dancing celebration, since he didn’t really earn it.
If the commission in Brazil backs up their guy and does not overturn this fight, it will stay a loss on Dober’s record, and that would be a shame. Dober deserves a no contest out of this one, and the UFC in a typical move, will pay him his win bonus as a sign that they are on his side. And with pictures surfacing of Herdy training with Silva’s team, and the attention he is getting for the bad stop on the world’s biggest MMA stage, Nerdy deserves a lifetime ban from refereeing. Though the UFC is quick with the rhetoric and shelling out a five-figure token to the fighter, would they consider not doing shows in Brazil if the commission backs Nerdy in any way? Probably not. If Nerdy made a mistake then he is a bad referee, but the perception that he may have trained with the winning fighter brings to the forefront a question of ethics.
Dober was a slight (+140) underdog heading into the fight with Silva, and after the first round saw Dober edge his opponent, bettors on Dober had to feel pretty good. Even in round two, once Dober got his head out, he was going to be on top with more than two minutes left in the bout. If you were betting the over, it was set at 2.5 rounds and paying back (-230), but laying the juice was starting to look good because though the match was going Dober’s way, a finish already seemed unlikely. Even those that may have been betting the under at (+190) can’t feel too good about their win.
