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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero bout at UFC 178 was wrought with controversy due to an incident in between the second and third rounds.
Kennedy had Romero hurt badly with a flurry of strikes at the end of the second, but the horn sounded to save Romero. Then, Romero remained on the stool for longer than the allotted minute, leading to a lot of confusion in the moment.
Because he didn't stand immediately, and the corner hadn't gotten the stool out of the cage, there was a delay to the start of the third round, at which time he proceeded to knock Kennedy out in a stirring comeback. However, the circumstances led to an irate Kennedy camp after the fight, who plan to appeal to the Nevada Athletic Commission.
It doesn't seem that the appeal will go anywhere, though, as NAC executive director Bob Bennett said afterward it was unlikely anything would be overturned.
"They're very seldom overruled," Bennett said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "The likelihood of an appeal being overturned is very slim. I'm not going to say it's not going to happen, but like I initially said, it would be deferred to our legal department."
Kennedy's camp feels it should have been a TKO when he didn't answer the bell, but there were some mitigating circumstances that also play against their complaints.
UFC President Dana White admitted after the event that it was the UFC's cut man who had put too much vaseline on Romero's face, and it was a Nevada commission member telling them to go in and wipe it off that contributed to the delay. Additionally, referee "Big" John McCarthy didn't tell Romero to stand immediately, and once he did, Romero got up.
"I don't know what happened," Romero said after the bout on Fox Sports 1. "When the referee said 'go fight,' I go. The problem is that the UFC, or somebody, give me the Vaseline. It was too much in my face, and the referee said, 'hey, hey, hey, clean, clean.' That's what happened. When they said 'come on, let's go,' I go to fight."
Penick's Analysis: Kennedy's not going to get any satisfaction with an appeal here. And given the damage he did to Romero at the end of the second came while he was holding onto Romero's glove with his fingers inside the tape to keep it down, it seems more immediate karma coming his way than anything, as that was perhaps a worse infraction that went completely missed in the moment. Given it was the UFC cut man who put too much vaseline on Romero's face, a commission rep telling them to wipe it off, and McCarthy not telling Romero to stand, there's nothing to see here.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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