Michael Bisping (28-7) besegrade Anderson Silva (33-7) via enhälligt domslut på UFC Fight Night 84, men gav kritik till domaren Herb Dean som inte stoppade matchen då Bisping tappade sitt tandskydd.
I tredje ronden tappade Bisping sitt tandskydd och signalerade till Dean om detta, men Dean lät matchen fortsätta och förklarar att Bisping kanske inte känner till reglerna kring just en sådan situation.
”Well, I don’t know, maybe he’s not aware of the rules. A lot of fighters, most of them read the fouls but they don’t read all the rules on the mechanics,” sa Dean. ”Maybe he wasn’t aware of that. But the rule is to replace the mouthpiece during a lull in the action.”
Dean förklarar att Silva precis skulle göra en attack och därför lät han matchen fortsätta.
”That’s the way the mechanic works, is that you replace the mouthpiece during a lull in the action. And [Bisping] signaled once, and Anderson was actually in the process of attacking him,” förklarade Dean. ”For a lot of reasons that are pretty evident you can’t stop to replace the mouthpiece during a heated exchange, and that qualified as a heated exchange.”
”If we were doing that, we’d have guys getting their bell rung, spitting out the mouthpiece to get a little extra time or sometimes you’re feeling a little tired, just spit your mouthpiece out,” sa Dean. ”So obviously we can’t do that in the middle of an exchange.”
På frågan om Dean borde ha stoppat matchen då Bisping blev droppad av ett knä från Silva förklarar Dean att han inte tyckte Bisping var medvetslös.
”Well, [Silva] hit him with the knee and dropped him, and then he walked off and started to celebrate,” he said. ”He had been dropped, but you know, in MMA we don’t stop the match just because someone gets dropped. I saw that when he fell he was not unconscious. He was facing Anderson. Anderson didn’t give him a threat to protect himself from, but — I don’t want to start playing what if, what if he attacked and whatnot — the bottom line is he didn’t attack. The round ended and, because Anderson was celebrating, there was some confusion as to what was going on.
