Gregory Rodrigues has defended Herb Decan about claiming that he was late in step in during a frightening series on UFC 317.
Last week International Fight Week 2025 took place from Las Vegas and culminated with UFC 317 that was led by an empty lightweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira.
Topuria was then the new lightweight champion after having beaten Oliveira in the very first round and to continue his rise to super star.
Although 'El Matador's' was extremely in common, there was a knockout on the prelims who might have awarded it.
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Gregory Rodrigues defends Herb Decan against late stopcalls
In the recommended Prelim, the stubborn middleweight Gregory Rodrigues recorded a smooth grappler Jack Hermansson.
The fight did not get from the first round when the Brazilian landed a crushing left hook on the chin of 'The Joker', who immediately sent him to the canvas.
Although he was already unconscious by the time he hit the floor, Rodrigues followed a few seconds later with a huge hammer fist.
The commentary team of Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier were extremely critical of both Rodrigues and the referee, Herb Dean, for the late interruption and unnecessary hammer fist. Hermanson was unfortunately a few minutes Down and Out in what was a scary scene.
Nowadays, however, Rodrigues has been removed from the fight and Dean has been defended against claiming that he was too slow in stopping the fight.
“Everyone was talking about (how Herb Dean was slow), but man, I think people will never understand what is happening in the octagon,” Rodrigues told Ariel Helwani.
“It was less than a second, man, of you who thought of the next motion … Herb Dean He did his job, I think, he was there and he took me with it. The people always complain about something … I don't care,” he went on.
Jack Hermansson responded to his Ko loss
Only a few days after his brutal loss, Hermansson responded to the brutal loss by congratulating his opponent in scoring the victory.
Since then, 'Robocop' has refused Rodrigues to apologize because he believes it is only part of the sport and he does not believe that the last hammer fist was unnecessary.