UFC Exec: Referee Gave Donald Cerrone 'Benefit of the Doubt' in Timing of Stoppage

Justin Gaethje picked up another impressive first-round finish over the weekend, this time against veteran Donald Cerrone in the main event at UFC Vancouver, but the fight-ending sequence caused some contention as referee Jerin Valel took his time to call the fight once “Cowboy” had been knocked down.

Cerrone versus Gaethje was billed as a “don’t blink” fight, given both fighters’ aggressiveness and their willingness to stand in the pocket and exchange. The fight lived up to the hype with “The Highlight” landing a flush shot on Cerrone near the end of the first round which knocked him down before Gaethje unleashed a flurry of shots which forced the referee to step in and stop the fight.

After the fight, Cerrone expressed his frustration with what he believed was an early stoppage, although Gaethje had delivered a number of unanswered shots and sentiment among fans and media seemed to be the opposite: that the fight should have been stopped sooner.

UFC Senior VP David Shaw spoke with reporters at the conclusion of the event and gave his thoughts on the stoppage (via BJPenn.com).

“Justin seemed upset. Cowboy seemed upset. It was one of those situations where Jerin probably gave Cowboy — considering his experience, expertise, and how long he’s been fighting — the benefit of the doubt. It probably could have got stopped a punch earlier,” Shaw said.

“He did the right thing in the end. It probably could have been stopped a punch earlier. Sometimes you have to give guys a bit more leeway to see if they can recover. But from my position, I believe it was stopped a tad too late.”

After his third straight first-round finish against a top-10 opponent, Gaethje is now eying a fight either against Conor McGregor, who had been in talks with the UFC to fight him over the summer, or the winner of the resumptive next title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.

Cerrone, on the other hand, now has two losses in a row and faces a more difficult road than ever to his stated goal of winning a UFC belt.