Gregory Rodrigues has defended Herb Dean over claims that he was too late in stepping in during a terrifying sequence at UFC 317.
This past week, International Fight Week 2025 took place from Las Vegas and culminated with UFC 317 which was headlined by a vacant lightweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira.
Topuria went on to turn into the brand new lightweight champion after knocking Oliveira out cold within the very first round, continuing his rise to superstardom.
Nonetheless, despite ‘El Matador’s’ KO being extremely vicious, there was a knockout on the prelims that might need topped it.
Gregory Rodrigues defends Herb Dean over late stoppage calls
Within the featured prelim, hard-hitting middleweight Gregory Rodrigues took on slick grappler Jack Hermansson.
The fight didn’t make it out of the primary round because the Brazilian landed a crushing left hook on the chin of ‘The Joker’, which sent him right down to the canvas immediately.
Despite already being unconscious by the point he hit the ground, Rodrigues followed up with an enormous hammer fist just seconds later.
The commentary team of Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier were extremely critical of each Rodrigues and the referee in charge, Herb Dean, for the late stoppage and unnecessary hammer fist. Hermansson was unfortunately down and out for just a few minutes in what was a scary scene.
Nonetheless, now days faraway from the fight, Rodrigues has got here out and defended Dean over claims that he was too slow in stopping the fight.
“Everyone was talking about (how Herb Dean was slow) but, man, I feel the individuals are never gonna understand what happens contained in the Octagon,” Rodrigues told Ariel Helwani.
“It was lower than a second, man, from you considering to the subsequent motion… Herb Dean he did his job I feel, he was there and he took me away. The individuals are at all times going to complain about something… I don’t care about that,” he continued.
Jack Hermansson reacted to his KO loss
Just just a few days after his brutal loss, Hermansson reacted to the brutal loss by congratulating his opponent for scoring the win.
Since then, ‘Robocop’ Rodrigues has refused to apologise as he believes it’s just a part of the game and he doesn’t imagine the ultimate hammer fist was unnecessary.