Bob Bennett, head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), is shaking his head at the recent claims being made by UFC champion Conor McGregor, who recently ripped apart the officiating for his August TKO loss at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
McGregor was making his professional debut as a boxer and took on five division champion Mayweather, who was coming out of retirement.
The fight, which took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, saw an exhausted McGregor get stopped in the tenth round of the fight.
McGregor still believes Byrd jumped in way too early to wave off the fight. He felt Byrd should have at least allowed him to go down. McGregor denies being hurt at the time of the stoppage and blames fatigue for being unsteady on his feet.
“I thought it was an early stoppage. How the f*** can you stop a fight if there were no knockdowns or nothing previous? The round before that I almost had him dropped. I hurt him to the body in the round before. How the f*** can you stop it like that at the first sign of a wobble? You’ve got to let these fights go on,” McGregor told interviewer Caroline Pearce.
Bennett disagrees. He felt Byrd did a great job in the fight and stopped the contest at the correct moment, when it appeared that McGregor was unable to defend himself and had nothing left in the tank.
“All I can say is we did our job. That’s what we get paid to do and that’s what we did. I find it very disappointing that Conor would make derogatory remarks that the fight was stopped too early when really the timing of referee Robert Byrd’s stoppage was impeccable. We looked out for his health and safety," Bennett told MMA Fighting.
"We did everything we could to ensure it was a level playing field. I think the fight was very exciting. The fans loved it. The health and safety of the fighter was always at the forefront, from the beginning of the fight. There’s no doubt Conor did a phenomenal job, fighting a future Hall of Famer. Obviously, Floyd had his game plan that worked as well. The actual stoppage, we looked out for the health and safety of the fighter, which is our responsibility.”