Rogan: Yoel Romero should have been disqualified
Joe Rogan: “He’s still just sitting on the stool. That should be it. ‘Big John’ should have called the fight right there. You can’t just sit on the stool.”
At UFC 178 Yoel Romero ended the second round completely out on his feet, and infamously stayed on his stool as the third began. When Referee John McCarthy came over to get him up, “Big John” noticed the UFC’s cutman had left too much grease on the fighter’s face, and directed Romero’s corner to clean it up. The corner however did not speak English, and was already heading back out of the Octagon, without the stool. A long long long 30 seconds passed before the fight resumed.
Opponent Tim Kennedy in the mean time thought he had won the fight, and when the fight resumed, Romero made full use of the extra recovery time, and won via strikes.
UFC color commentator Joe Rogan addressed the issue on his podcast, and said that Romero should have been disqualified by referee “Big” John McCarthy.
“If Romero was standing up they might have said there was too much Vaseline on and it would have taken two seconds to wipe it off, but he still sat on that stool,”said Rogan as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAFighting. “He sat on that stool. Just sat there. Tim Kennedy’s in front of him going, ‘What the f—? Get up! What’s going on?’ He’s still just sitting on the stool. That should be it. ‘Big John’ should have called the fight right there. You can’t just sit on the stool.”
“You can’t let that happen. You don’t expect it to happen but I guess you have to be diligent with some corners who, they know, know how to get themselves out of a f—ing situation.”
“Yoel Romero knew that the round was over. He knew he was getting extra break. 100 percent. One thousand million percent. He was sitting there. Kennedy was in front of him saying, ‘What’s going on? Get up!’ And he still just sat there. That extra 29 seconds was f—ing gigantic.”
What do you think UG? If you were in “Big John” big shoes, what would you have done?