Henry Cejudo confronted referee Jason Herzog over the eye poke controversy in his loss to Song Yadong.
Cejudo (16-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) lost a technical decision to Song (22-8-1 MMA, 11-3-1 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 252 main event at Climate Pledge Arena. Cejudo was poked in the eye towards the end of Round 3, but chose to finish off the round after taking the full five minutes to try and recover.
However, by the end of Round 3, Cejudo said he couldn’t see, and the fight went to the judges’ scorecards where Song was awarded the win. Cejudo FaceTimed Herzog to discuss his discontent with the way he handled the situation.
“When I got poked, Jason, one, you didn’t take a point,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “And then two, when I took the five-minute break and we ended up coming back to actually fight, I still wasn’t recovered, but that dude still came here (with fingers out), and you didn’t do anything.
“Luckily, I couldn’t see, or at least I saw four arms, but you never warned him, or you never took away a point. Jason, Bisping lost an eye because of this. Again, Jason, I respect your job. What I’m trying to do is, how can we make this sport better? Dana White thinks I’m b*tching out. Dana White thinks I wanted out when I’m still seeing blurry right now.”
Herzog admitted that he should have likely taken a point from Song.
“You’re asking me about the point deduction, and I agree,” Herzog responded. “Let’s say we took the point deduction so we can play this out. So I take the point, you have the deduction. I’m not saying you’re wrong about taking the point and not taking the point because as I reviewed it a couple of times, I’m leaning towards yeah, you definitely should have taken a point.
“I’ll give you my perspective in the moment and then just so you hear it, and I’m not trying to say that it’s right or wrong. I’ve heard you now and I completely agree. Especially afterwards when he came out with his fingers like this (stretched out), why didn’t you then stop it and take a point immediately, and I think that’s a very valid criticism and an adjustment that I probably should have made. I think that’s a fair point.”
Cejudo took issue with the fact that Herzog went over the rules with him prior to the fight, but didn’t end up penalizing Song.
“You say these rules in the back Jason, and I think that’s what kind of bugs me, is that you specifically did this thing (outstretched fingers), everything that you said happened to me and there’s no point taken away,” Cejudo said. “I looked like the biggest b*tch on earth. … I have a loss on my record, Jason, because you didn’t make the right call and that bugs me a little bit.”
Cejudo thought had Herzog taken a point away from Song, the fight would have been ruled a majority draw after going to the judges’ scorecards. However, Herzog clarified that had he deducted a point from Song and Cejudo couldn’t continue fighting after Round 3, he would have lost by TKO.
So in hindsight, Herzog was trying to give him the best-case scenario.
“Again, I’m trying to keep you in the fight is my goal in this moment,” Herzog said. “How do I keep this man in the fight, how do I let him compete? The criticism I hear is valid, ‘Why didn’t you take a point?’ Well, you then walk into this, ‘Then it would have been a draw.’ That ‘would have been a draw’ part doesn’t exist. Then it would have been a TKO loss. That’s the actual argument. It would have been a TKO loss because Henry Cejudo could no longer continue to fight.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 252.
