Paul Felder, Dan Hardy incensed by late stoppage in Francisco Trinaldo-Jai Herbert fight

Neither of the UFC commentators were pleased with referee Herb Dean’s lack of action in this one.

[autotag]Francisco Trinaldo[/autotag] looked like an older fighter on the decline against a younger competitor in [autotag]Jai Herbert[/autotag] during most of their UFC on ESPN 14 featured preliminary bout.

Then, Trinaldo (26-7 MMA, 16-6 UFC) came out in the third round looking exactly like the sort of veteran who knew he had to pull a rabbit out of his hat in order to win. Trinaldo did exactly that, dropping Herbert (10-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in what sure looked like a fight-ending overhand left to the forehead.

Except it wasn’t, and things got weird.

Herbert, clearly without full possession of his faculties, hit the mat. Trinaldo held up from doing more damage to his finished foe. But referee Herb Dean didn’t wave it off, so Trinaldo proceeded to land four more punches before it was waved off.

Check out the frantic finish in the video below:

The sequence incensed cageside commentators Paul Felder and Dan Hardy, who took turns teeing off on Dean’s officiating.

“I’m gonna give a lot of credit to Trinaldo in that moment right there. He could’ve just started teeing off, but he saw what we saw, and that fight should’ve been stopped,” Felder said.

As he looked at the replay, Hardy made it clear how he felt about the situation.

“He does not want anymore shots in that moment,” Hardy said. “That fight was over. That’s terrible.”

Added Felder: “That pisses me off. You know, that’s not normally Herb. Herb is usually a fine referee, but tonight that’s two calls now where I think the fight should’ve been stopped. That’s even worse. Herbert had a beautiful performance. He’s a young guy making his debut, and Trinaldo rocks him. He falls back the way he falls back like a board. He was out.”

Further adding to the chaos, Hardy and Dean got into a verbal exchange after the fight. While the entire conversation was not picked up, MMA Junkie’s John Morgan, who is on the scene in Abu Dhabi, reports that Hardy was overheard saying “You do your job, and I’ll do mine.”

A photo of the altercation surfaced on Twitter.

 

The controversy overshadowed what was a truly remarkable win for Trinaldo, who had missed the lightweight limit by four pounds. It’s the longtime competitor’s third straight victory.

UFC on ESPN 14 takes place Saturday at Flash Forum at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The card airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+.

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