Jared Cannonier seems to have been robbed of a big opportunity.
The main event of last Saturday night’s UFC on ESPN 57 ended with a controversial stoppage in a high-stakes middleweight bout between Cannonier and opponent Nassoordin Imavov.
Imavov rocked Cannonier with a counter right punch in the fourth round of the five-round bout.
Cannonier was visibly staggered and even had to jog away from the Octagon at one point to recover.
Imavov continued to land right punches on the staggering Cannonier, but the bout was stopped as Cannonier was recovering.
Many spoke out about the questionable stoppage made by referee Jason Herzog.
Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jamahal Hill wrote to X, “Horrible STOP!!!!!”.
Ariel Helwani, a well-known mixed martial arts journalist “It’s really awful.” About X.
“Just awful,” he wrote. “Watching it live I thought Cannonier had lost his mouthpiece or something. He got fooled here. I would like to understand why the normally solid Herzog made this call. One of the worst calls in recent memory.”
UFC flyweight Cody Darden showed a similar reaction.
“I don’t like that stoppage. These guys should be allowed to fight longer! He was still fighting,” he wrote to X.
Cannonier was ranked No. 4 in the UFC middleweight division prior to the bout, but the loss dropped him to 17-7 and ended his two-fight win streak.
Cannonier lost a middleweight title bout to then-titleholder Israel Adesanya at UFC 276 on July 2.
Imavov improves to 14-4 with his sixth knockout victory.
He came into this fight ranked seventh in the middleweight division and now looks likely to move into the top five.
