I agree that it was a fucked up situation, but I don't think AA can take any of the blame. That was all Herb Deans fault. Granted, he could have not hit Cruz even though the ref started it, but still, he was merely trying to win within the referee's guidelines, which were fucking weird at that particular moment.
If I remember correctly, after the restart, he even paused for a sec like he didn't want to or didn't know if he should, but Herb said fight, so he said fuck it.
There was so much sand in the collective sherdog vaginas that night, lol. The Cruz fans were livid.
1) They hated that AA threw the punch when Cruz was unsure of what was going on
2) They hated that he grabbed the fence to take better position while trying to finish
3) They hated that the shots were potentially to the back of the head
All of which were the result of Herb Dean being frazzled under pressure during a weird situation.