Dominick Cruz makes his return to the octagon after ‘that’ loss to Henry Cejudo at UFC 249, last May. He now takes on Casey Kenney in the prelims card at UFC 259, on the 6th of March. Still shaken from that loss to Cejudo, which he and many others in the MMA world feel, was an early stoppage by referee Keith Peterson, Cruz is looking forward to getting back to winning ways.
Speaking in an interview with Ariel Helwani of ESPN MMA, Dominick Cruz blasted Keith Peterson for ‘giving Henry Cejudo a nice gift with that stoppage’. He added that he was very well in his senses and defending himself well when Keith Peterson waved off the fight.
He further went on to say that, Keith Peterson is never a competitive referee in his opinion and that he had never faced such a bad refereeing in the 25 fights, he has fought so far.
‘I was doing both of those things when the fight got stopped‘
Dominick Cruz was quoted as saying, “I believe Keith Peterson gave him (Henry Cejudo) a nice gift with that (stoppage). I was, you know — yeah I got hurt and I shouldn’t have put myself in that position but I was — if you talk to the refs, and you talk to anybody — you have a couple things you need to do in order to keep the fight going. You need to be defending yourself and you need to be working into a better position. I was doing both of those things when the fight got stopped.“
He continued, “You can’t be knocked out when you’re standing up on your feet while someone’s hanging on you — like I was okay. So it was hard for me to get stopped when it wasn’t — it was a premature stoppage 100%. I don’t believe I lost that fight, I believe Keith Peterson took that fight. Now I say that, in the midst of somebody who always takes responsibility for their losses. I lost to Cody Garbrandt. I think I probably won two out of five of those rounds against Cody, but he won three out of five, so I would say he won that fight. And I take responsibility for losing that fight (against Garbrandt). This fight (against Cejudo) was different — that’s what was tough about it.“
‘I don’t believe he’s a competent ref‘
Dominick Cruz revealed that Peterson isn’t a competitive referee in his opinion. Speaking of which he said, “I’m gonna definitely request — and I can only hope and pray that the commission honors my request to not have him (Keith Peterson) in my corner — or refereeing my fight. I can’t guarantee it, the commission does whatever they want and I respect them and their decisions, but I don’t believe he’s a competent ref with the way he treated my fight and the way he treated it before the fight happened.“ [via Bloody Elbow]
He concluded, “The way that I saw him going through the rules in the back — I’ve never had a referee that I’ve had to say, ‘hold on, hold on, stop. Can you start all over again? I can’t understand anything you’re saying. And you’re not looking me in the eyes, are you here? Are you present?’ And I don’t know if he was nervous, or if he had something going on — but I never dealt with that. I’ve had twenty fights, twenty-five fights close to.“ [via Bloody Elbow]
What are your thoughts on this?
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