“There was 30 seconds left, let me go out on my shield,” Kris Moutinho isn’t too happy with Herb Dean’s stoppage


“There was 30 seconds left, let me go out on my shield,” Kris Moutinho isn’t too happy with Herb Dean’s stoppage

Kris Moutinho vs Sean O'Malley

Kris Moutinho displayed incredible toughness and guts against Sean O’Malley at UFC 264, he accepted this fight on a 10 days’ notice and didn’t back up even for a second during the entire fight. Clearly, Moutinho lost the fight but he deserved the respect of everyone watching.

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A major talking point from the fight was the stoppage by Herb Dean just as the final round was ending, O’Malley was beating Moutinho up but he wasn’t going down, with 30 seconds left in the final round O’Malley landed a barrage of strikes on Moutinho but he kept on fighting he was still on his feet but the referee thought he had seen enough and stopped the fight.

Now Kris Moutinho has given his view on this controversial stoppage, in a recent interview with MMA Junkie, he said, “I definitely think it was stopped too soon, but I’m not going to sit here and bash Herb Dean because he seems like a great guy and a great referee. I’ve seen him make a lot of great calls, sometimes you make bad ones. I’ve seen guys who look like they’re going to die in that cage and not get stopped. You can watch the Rory MacDonald fight with Robbie Lawler where he went four and a half rounds with his face smashed and a bloody mess and they didn’t stop that fight.”

“There was 30 seconds left, let me go out on my shield. I was still standing, I was still throwing punches, so yeah I’m a little upset.”

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“He’s going to remember me for the rest of his life,” Kris Moutinho on Sean O’Malley

Sean O'Malley vs Kris Moutinho
Sean O’Malley vs Kris Moutinho

O’Malley displayed incredible striking in that fight, he was landing with almost 80% accuracy he moved around well and didn’t give Kris Moutinho any chance to get in the rhythm, but even after all this Moutinho kept on fighting.

He remembered an exchange he had with O’Malley during the fight, he said, “I asked him the fight at one point, ‘You’re tired,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah,’” Moutinho said. “I know I got to the dude; I know he’s going to remember me for the rest of his life.”

He added, “He’s never going to want to fight me again and if he does, there’s a lot of different things I’m going to do in that fight if I ever fight him again. The leg kicks were working, I was landing a lot of leg kicks. I just should’ve kept going with them. My hands, I should’ve set them up with feints. There’s a lot of stuff me and my coaches will be working on and we’ll get better from this. It could be at 135 (pounds), it could be at 125, we’re just going to get better and keep going.”

Also read: “There are levels to this kid,” Cody Garbrandt unimpressed with Sean O’Malley performance at UFC 264

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