Referee Herb Dean had to oversee a strange situation in the Cody Garbrandt vs. Xiao Long fight at UFC 326, and a fellow veteran official is applauding his effort.
Saturday’s featured preliminary bout devolved into chaos when Xiao landed a brutal low blow on the former UFC bantamweight champion that forced Dean to pause the bout and left Garbrandt incapacitated for several minutes. During this break, the commentary team said Garbrandt was in such discomfort that he vomited. The scene was not shown on the CBS-Paramount+ broadcast, but Garbrandt later confirmed the incident and photos also showed him hovering over a bucket in the octagon.
Reporters and fans on social media questioned why the bout was not stopped, citing a well-known rule that the expulsion of body fluids in the middle of a match typically results in the offending fighter suffering a loss via technical knockout. However, veteran official John McCarthy took to Twitter to defend Dean’s decision-making and explain exactly what happened.
“The Cody Garbrandt vomiting situation was handled beautifully by [Dean] and the [Nevada State Athletic Commission ringside physician,” McCarthy wrote. “Cody was fouled and a timeout was called by Herb. Cody has up to five minutes to recover from the foul. A bucket was brought in for Cody based upon him feeling nauseous due to the foul.
“He did use the bucket , so it was imperative that the ringside physician at this point is controlling the physical activity and determining whether Cody can continue or does the fight need to be stopped and decided by a technical decision based upon the fight being in the third round of a three-round fight. The ringside physician allowed the fighter to continue so Herb took away a point from the fighter committing the foul and restarted the fight. If there was no foul and Cody had been hit by a legal blow that caused him to vomit, the fight would have been stopped by Herb as a TKO victory for Xiao.”
It’s important to note that McCarthy makes the distinction between Garbrandt’s vomiting being caused by an illegal blow as opposed to a legal one, the latter of which would have resulted in a Xiao victory. The incident also occurred during a break in action as opposed to mid-fight, giving Dean and the commission more flexibility with the situation, the same as if it occurred between rounds.
The most famous instance of loose bodily fluids possibly affecting a UFC fight came in a June 2017 fight between Felice Herrig and Justine Kish. During the contest, Kish had a bowel movement, which did not result in the contest being stopped (Herrig went on to win a unanimous decision). However, if you’re looking for examples of vomit losses, dig back into the archives below.
BMF? Charles Oliveira dominated Max Holloway, but the reviews of his performance have been mixed.
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No Bones. Dana White says Jon Jones was never close to consideration for the White House, Jones responds (and deletes).
No…Torious. Apparently the UFC is far from a Conor McGregor return, too.
Whatever. Arman Tsarukyan is grappling Muhammad Mokaev, and Shara Bullet takes on Edson Barboza also in a submission-only match.
Brutal. Patchy Mix got KTFO by a teenage phenom at RIZIN in his first fight since parting ways with the UFC.
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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
Ilia Topuria (17-0) vs. Justin Gaethje (27-5); UFC White House, June 14
Alex Pereira (13-3) vs. Ciryl Gane (13-2, 1 NC); UFC White House, June 14
Sean O’Malley (19-3, 1 NC) vs. Aiemann Zahabi (14-2); UFC White House, June 14
Mauricio Ruffy (13-2) vs. Michael Chandler (23-10); UFC White House, June 14
Bo Nickal (8-1) vs. Kyle Daukaus (17-4, 1 NC); UFC White House, June 14
Diego Lopes (27-8) vs. Steve Garcia (19-5); UFC White House, June 14
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