Mike Rodriguez assigns no blame in controversial loss: Ed Herman did 'nothing wrong'

TCE

"That's fucking illegal"
Pink Belt
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Messages
19,321
Reaction score
17,318
Mike Rodriguez has come to terms with his loss to Ed Herman at UFC on ESPN+ 35 and is ready to move on.

Rodriguez (11-5 MMA, 2-3 UFC) got the short end of the stick on a blunder from referee Chris Tognoni in the light heavyweight bout this past Saturday. He landed a knee to the midsection of Herman (26-14 MMA, 13-10 UFC) in the second round, and the referee misidentified it as a low blow.

Herman was presented with the standard five-minute recovery window for a groin-strike foul, but the replay showed it landed clean. The fight was allowed to resume after the controversial moment, and Herman rallied in the third to secure a fight-ending kimura and conclude the stunning turn of events.

There was no shortage of outrage afterward, with fighters on social media, the UFC broadcast team and, most emphatically of all, UFC president Dana White going after Tognoni and Herman for their parts in the situation. A few days later, though, Rodriguez said he’s reflected on what happened and won’t assign blame.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve got no ill will towards (Tognoni). It was a simple mistake, and Ed just capitalized on the mistake. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a (expletive) situation. The only thing I really, like, blame Ed for, if anything, is when he got the submission, how he put his feet in the fence. Other than that, it is what it is. There’s nothing we can really do about it.”

Although it’s over in his mind, there are still moving parts stemming from the outcome at UFC on ESPN+ 35. Rodriguez’s manager, Tyson Chartier, said immediately after the fight that an appeal would be filed to have Herman’s win overturned, likely to a no contest.

Rodriguez said he’s going to allow his team to do their jobs in lobbying to make that happen, but he doesn’t necessarily have expectations.

“I’m assuming if anything it would be changed to a (no contest), which is better than a loss,” Rodriguez said. “I have no clue what’s going to happen with that.”

One thing that does allow Rodriguez to be positive after a disappointing situation was how the controversy was received by the UFC brass. White said he was going to pay Rodriguez his win bonus, and that he is viewing it as a win for him.

“That’s exactly what Dana said: ‘You won that (expletive) round. … You finished Ed Herman the second round,'” Rodriguez recalled. “I was sitting in the back, I was a little bummed out, I got caught. The doctors were looking at my shoulder and all of a sudden I looked up and Dana White was right there. He was not happy. I thought I did something wrong. I was instantly like, ‘Oh (expletive), what did I do?’ He was like, ‘That’s bull(expletive), that’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. You definitely won.'”

As far as his next move, Rodriguez said he’s not overly eager to run it back with Herman. If the UFC views it as a win for him, he said he’s happy to proceed the same way and take his next step forward.

more:

https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2020...me-controversial-loss-ed-herman-chris-tognoni

Another interview from MMA Fighting:

“I would just say it happened, it was an awkward moment in our sport,” Rodriguez told Mike Heck on What The Heck. “We should just accept and move right along. Don’t send Ed Herman no hate messages or anything. Please don’t. He’s a good dude. All he did was get an opportunity and capitalize on it. That was it.”

Herman was ruled the winner via kimura submission after reversing Rodriguez on the mat. Referee Chris Tognoni warned a stoppage was imminent after Herman took a series of brutal elbows to the head and slumped to the canvas.

Controversy arose after the second round when Tognoni called a foul to the groin from a pair of Rodriguez knees that sent an obviously hurt Herman to the mat. Herman was given five minutes to recover from the strike, and the action continued.

After the fight, Rodriguez was getting checked on by a doctor when he looked up and saw UFC President Dana White.

“He had this red beet face, and I’m like, ‘Did I do something? I didn’t do anything,’” Rodriguez said. “He’s like, ‘I’m so pissed, this is one of the worst referees I’ve ever seen,’ and he started going off on this tangent.

“And before I left, they were like, ‘Hey, he’s still going to give you the win money.’ I was like, ‘Oh, sh*t. Thank you.’”

In the moment, Rodriguez didn’t realize his knee strikes were legal. When Tognoni stopped the action, he flashed back to a previous training session where he’d kneed a training partner in the groin while in the clinch. But then he saw the replay of the sequence.

“So I’m sitting back, I’m like, ‘My bad,’ or whatever,” Rodriguez said. “Then something told me to look up a the screen, because my corner was like, ‘This is bullsh*t.’ I look at the screen, and I’m like, oh, that was all liver.

“At first, I didn’t get my emotions involved in it, that he was milking the clock. But then I was like, you know what, you’ve got to fight. We’re still fighting. They’re giving him five minutes – you take this five minutes, you rest, calm your heart rate down, and let’s get back in there. So I just looked at it, like the show must go on.”

Rodriguez heard his management being warned for coaching, and he even picked up UFC commentator and ex-champ Michael Bisping, whom he heard saying, ‘Aw, Ed is milking this for all it’s worth right now.’”

The other commentator on duty at UFC Vegas 10, Brendan Fitzgerald, relayed UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Rather to clarify the replay couldn’t be used in the situation because it wasn’t a fight-ending sequence.

For Rodriguez, the blame rests squarely with Tognoni’s call of the foul, not Herman.

“They gave him the time,” Rodriguez said. “It’s like, take five. We all knew it was the beginning of the end, and he was able to get a free five minutes from being finished off, so he was like, ‘Oh alright, sick.’ It’s whatever.”

The situation wasn’t the last time a replay rained on Rodriguez’s parade. As it turned out, Herman appeared to put his toe into the fence to add leverage for the sweep that led to the fight-ending submission.

“I was like, ‘C’mon, Ed, why would you do that to yourself,’” Rodriguez said. “Like, he put his foot in the fence to get the sweep, and I’m like, Dude, you did so good. You got the win. Why would you do that? So that, like, threw salt on his victory. But it’s whatever.”

Per Rodriguez’s manager, Tyson Chartier, the appeal currently in process is not only to overturn Herman’s win, but bring clarity to the rules and clarify options available to the referee.

A Nevada Athletic Commission statute, NAC 467.682, states that instant replay can be used “at the conclusion of a contest or exhibition stopped immediately because of an injury to an unarmed combatant ... in order to determine whether the injury in question was caused by a legal blow or a foul.” But the same rule also states a referee “may, at any time during a contest or exhibition, call a time-out to consult with officials of the commission or to view replay footage.”

“[Tognoni] had the ability to make sure his call was right, and he didn’t do that,” Chartier said.

At the post-fight press conference, White confirmed Rodriguez received his show and win money and blasted Tognoni’s performance. In Nevada, official bout results can only be overturned if it’s determined there was a scoring error, unlawful collusion, or the referee incorrectly interpreted the rules. Because the commission considers the referee the sole arbiter of the contest, most fighter appeals are denied. But Chartier hopes his team can get the commission to tighten up its language to help fighters in the future.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, is looking forward to his next fight.

“The thing I’m more excited about is everybody saw me perform, and everybody loved my performance,” he said. “That was the one thing I really cared about. I even looked at my stats; I was like a 70 percent accuracy rate, something like that. It was ridiculous. Feels pretty good.

“If it does [get overturned], it does. Whatever. I’m just already like, I’m past it. I’m ready to fight again. I’m here with my wife, and she’s like, ‘Why are you panting around?’ I’m like, ‘I’m still in fight week mode. Leave me alone.’ I’m going to do all the medical procedures, check everything out, make sure I’m good, and get back to another camp.”

https://www.mmafighting.com/2020/9/...fc-vegas-10-tells-fans-not-to-flame-ed-herman
 
Last edited:
Damn, classy guy, but still i think he should complain referes should be taken acountable for their mistakes and that referee shouldn't be in the ufc
 
Replay viewing should be allowed to the ref in these 5min breaks even if it's isn't a fight ending sequence imo
 
Respek on his name handling this in such a respectful manner. I would be pissed. I'll root for him in his next bout because of this situation.
 
"Well, officer...the bank robbers dropped this bag of cash when they left the bank in a hurry. I did nothing wrong by picking it up and taking it home. Finders keepers, losers weepers...right?"


Jarl
 
Cant blame Herman for doing what he had to to get his win bonus.
Rodriguez handled it well

Respect.

if he got paid like he won and gets treated like he won then that’s good enough.
 
Mike Rodriguez has come to terms with his loss to Ed Herman at UFC on ESPN+ 35 and is ready to move on.

Rodriguez (11-5 MMA, 2-3 UFC) got the short end of the stick on a blunder from referee Chris Tognoni in the light heavyweight bout this past Saturday. He landed a knee to the midsection of Herman (26-14 MMA, 13-10 UFC) in the second round, and the referee misidentified it as a low blow.

Herman was presented with the standard five-minute recovery window for a groin-strike foul, but the replay showed it landed clean. The fight was allowed to resume after the controversial moment, and Herman rallied in the third to secure a fight-ending kimura and conclude the stunning turn of events.

There was no shortage of outrage afterward, with fighters on social media, the UFC broadcast team and, most emphatically of all, UFC president Dana White going after Tognoni and Herman for their parts in the situation. A few days later, though, Rodriguez said he’s reflected on what happened and won’t assign blame.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve got no ill will towards (Tognoni). It was a simple mistake, and Ed just capitalized on the mistake. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a (expletive) situation. The only thing I really, like, blame Ed for, if anything, is when he got the submission, how he put his feet in the fence. Other than that, it is what it is. There’s nothing we can really do about it.”

Although it’s over in his mind, there are still moving parts stemming from the outcome at UFC on ESPN+ 35. Rodriguez’s manager, Tyson Chartier, said immediately after the fight that an appeal would be filed to have Herman’s win overturned, likely to a no contest.

Rodriguez said he’s going to allow his team to do their jobs in lobbying to make that happen, but he doesn’t necessarily have expectations.

“I’m assuming if anything it would be changed to a (no contest), which is better than a loss,” Rodriguez said. “I have no clue what’s going to happen with that.”

One thing that does allow Rodriguez to be positive after a disappointing situation was how the controversy was received by the UFC brass. White said he was going to pay Rodriguez his win bonus, and that he is viewing it as a win for him.

“That’s exactly what Dana said: ‘You won that (expletive) round. … You finished Ed Herman the second round,'” Rodriguez recalled. “I was sitting in the back, I was a little bummed out, I got caught. The doctors were looking at my shoulder and all of a sudden I looked up and Dana White was right there. He was not happy. I thought I did something wrong. I was instantly like, ‘Oh (expletive), what did I do?’ He was like, ‘That’s bull(expletive), that’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. You definitely won.'”

As far as his next move, Rodriguez said he’s not overly eager to run it back with Herman. If the UFC views it as a win for him, he said he’s happy to proceed the same way and take his next step forward.

more:

https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2020...me-controversial-loss-ed-herman-chris-tognoni

Another interview from MMA Fighting:

“I would just say it happened, it was an awkward moment in our sport,” Rodriguez told Mike Heck on What The Heck. “We should just accept and move right along. Don’t send Ed Herman no hate messages or anything. Please don’t. He’s a good dude. All he did was get an opportunity and capitalize on it. That was it.”

Herman was ruled the winner via kimura submission after reversing Rodriguez on the mat. Referee Chris Tognoni warned a stoppage was imminent after Herman took a series of brutal elbows to the head and slumped to the canvas.

Controversy arose after the second round when Tognoni called a foul to the groin from a pair of Rodriguez knees that sent an obviously hurt Herman to the mat. Herman was given five minutes to recover from the strike, and the action continued.

After the fight, Rodriguez was getting checked on by a doctor when he looked up and saw UFC President Dana White.

“He had this red beet face, and I’m like, ‘Did I do something? I didn’t do anything,’” Rodriguez said. “He’s like, ‘I’m so pissed, this is one of the worst referees I’ve ever seen,’ and he started going off on this tangent.

“And before I left, they were like, ‘Hey, he’s still going to give you the win money.’ I was like, ‘Oh, sh*t. Thank you.’”

In the moment, Rodriguez didn’t realize his knee strikes were legal. When Tognoni stopped the action, he flashed back to a previous training session where he’d kneed a training partner in the groin while in the clinch. But then he saw the replay of the sequence.

“So I’m sitting back, I’m like, ‘My bad,’ or whatever,” Rodriguez said. “Then something told me to look up a the screen, because my corner was like, ‘This is bullsh*t.’ I look at the screen, and I’m like, oh, that was all liver.

“At first, I didn’t get my emotions involved in it, that he was milking the clock. But then I was like, you know what, you’ve got to fight. We’re still fighting. They’re giving him five minutes – you take this five minutes, you rest, calm your heart rate down, and let’s get back in there. So I just looked at it, like the show must go on.”

Rodriguez heard his management being warned for coaching, and he even picked up UFC commentator and ex-champ Michael Bisping, whom he heard saying, ‘Aw, Ed is milking this for all it’s worth right now.’”

The other commentator on duty at UFC Vegas 10, Brendan Fitzgerald, relayed UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Rather to clarify the replay couldn’t be used in the situation because it wasn’t a fight-ending sequence.

For Rodriguez, the blame rests squarely with Tognoni’s call of the foul, not Herman.

“They gave him the time,” Rodriguez said. “It’s like, take five. We all knew it was the beginning of the end, and he was able to get a free five minutes from being finished off, so he was like, ‘Oh alright, sick.’ It’s whatever.”

The situation wasn’t the last time a replay rained on Rodriguez’s parade. As it turned out, Herman appeared to put his toe into the fence to add leverage for the sweep that led to the fight-ending submission.

“I was like, ‘C’mon, Ed, why would you do that to yourself,’” Rodriguez said. “Like, he put his foot in the fence to get the sweep, and I’m like, Dude, you did so good. You got the win. Why would you do that? So that, like, threw salt on his victory. But it’s whatever.”

Per Rodriguez’s manager, Tyson Chartier, the appeal currently in process is not only to overturn Herman’s win, but bring clarity to the rules and clarify options available to the referee.

A Nevada Athletic Commission statute, NAC 467.682, states that instant replay can be used “at the conclusion of a contest or exhibition stopped immediately because of an injury to an unarmed combatant ... in order to determine whether the injury in question was caused by a legal blow or a foul.” But the same rule also states a referee “may, at any time during a contest or exhibition, call a time-out to consult with officials of the commission or to view replay footage.”

“[Tognoni] had the ability to make sure his call was right, and he didn’t do that,” Chartier said.

At the post-fight press conference, White confirmed Rodriguez received his show and win money and blasted Tognoni’s performance. In Nevada, official bout results can only be overturned if it’s determined there was a scoring error, unlawful collusion, or the referee incorrectly interpreted the rules. Because the commission considers the referee the sole arbiter of the contest, most fighter appeals are denied. But Chartier hopes his team can get the commission to tighten up its language to help fighters in the future.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, is looking forward to his next fight.

“The thing I’m more excited about is everybody saw me perform, and everybody loved my performance,” he said. “That was the one thing I really cared about. I even looked at my stats; I was like a 70 percent accuracy rate, something like that. It was ridiculous. Feels pretty good.

“If it does [get overturned], it does. Whatever. I’m just already like, I’m past it. I’m ready to fight again. I’m here with my wife, and she’s like, ‘Why are you panting around?’ I’m like, ‘I’m still in fight week mode. Leave me alone.’ I’m going to do all the medical procedures, check everything out, make sure I’m good, and get back to another camp.”

https://www.mmafighting.com/2020/9/...fc-vegas-10-tells-fans-not-to-flame-ed-herman
It's simple. If they allowed video replay Tognoni would've seen he called that one worse than Stevie Wonder. It's just dumb they don't allow a video review in a situation like this. The ref's are human and they make mistakes. The video replay would correct this.
 
He’s right...

Herman did what he was supposed to do and take advantage of the situation...

The ref is the one who should have saw whether or not the strike was legal or illegal...

Nobody should be blaming Herman.
 
Mike Rodriguez has come to terms with his loss to Ed Herman at UFC on ESPN+ 35 and is ready to move on.

Rodriguez (11-5 MMA, 2-3 UFC) got the short end of the stick on a blunder from referee Chris Tognoni in the light heavyweight bout this past Saturday. He landed a knee to the midsection of Herman (26-14 MMA, 13-10 UFC) in the second round, and the referee misidentified it as a low blow.

Herman was presented with the standard five-minute recovery window for a groin-strike foul, but the replay showed it landed clean. The fight was allowed to resume after the controversial moment, and Herman rallied in the third to secure a fight-ending kimura and conclude the stunning turn of events.

There was no shortage of outrage afterward, with fighters on social media, the UFC broadcast team and, most emphatically of all, UFC president Dana White going after Tognoni and Herman for their parts in the situation. A few days later, though, Rodriguez said he’s reflected on what happened and won’t assign blame.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve got no ill will towards (Tognoni). It was a simple mistake, and Ed just capitalized on the mistake. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a (expletive) situation. The only thing I really, like, blame Ed for, if anything, is when he got the submission, how he put his feet in the fence. Other than that, it is what it is. There’s nothing we can really do about it.”

Although it’s over in his mind, there are still moving parts stemming from the outcome at UFC on ESPN+ 35. Rodriguez’s manager, Tyson Chartier, said immediately after the fight that an appeal would be filed to have Herman’s win overturned, likely to a no contest.

Rodriguez said he’s going to allow his team to do their jobs in lobbying to make that happen, but he doesn’t necessarily have expectations.

“I’m assuming if anything it would be changed to a (no contest), which is better than a loss,” Rodriguez said. “I have no clue what’s going to happen with that.”

One thing that does allow Rodriguez to be positive after a disappointing situation was how the controversy was received by the UFC brass. White said he was going to pay Rodriguez his win bonus, and that he is viewing it as a win for him.

“That’s exactly what Dana said: ‘You won that (expletive) round. … You finished Ed Herman the second round,'” Rodriguez recalled. “I was sitting in the back, I was a little bummed out, I got caught. The doctors were looking at my shoulder and all of a sudden I looked up and Dana White was right there. He was not happy. I thought I did something wrong. I was instantly like, ‘Oh (expletive), what did I do?’ He was like, ‘That’s bull(expletive), that’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. You definitely won.'”

As far as his next move, Rodriguez said he’s not overly eager to run it back with Herman. If the UFC views it as a win for him, he said he’s happy to proceed the same way and take his next step forward.

more:

https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2020...me-controversial-loss-ed-herman-chris-tognoni

Another interview from MMA Fighting:

“I would just say it happened, it was an awkward moment in our sport,” Rodriguez told Mike Heck on What The Heck. “We should just accept and move right along. Don’t send Ed Herman no hate messages or anything. Please don’t. He’s a good dude. All he did was get an opportunity and capitalize on it. That was it.”

Herman was ruled the winner via kimura submission after reversing Rodriguez on the mat. Referee Chris Tognoni warned a stoppage was imminent after Herman took a series of brutal elbows to the head and slumped to the canvas.

Controversy arose after the second round when Tognoni called a foul to the groin from a pair of Rodriguez knees that sent an obviously hurt Herman to the mat. Herman was given five minutes to recover from the strike, and the action continued.

After the fight, Rodriguez was getting checked on by a doctor when he looked up and saw UFC President Dana White.

“He had this red beet face, and I’m like, ‘Did I do something? I didn’t do anything,’” Rodriguez said. “He’s like, ‘I’m so pissed, this is one of the worst referees I’ve ever seen,’ and he started going off on this tangent.

“And before I left, they were like, ‘Hey, he’s still going to give you the win money.’ I was like, ‘Oh, sh*t. Thank you.’”

In the moment, Rodriguez didn’t realize his knee strikes were legal. When Tognoni stopped the action, he flashed back to a previous training session where he’d kneed a training partner in the groin while in the clinch. But then he saw the replay of the sequence.

“So I’m sitting back, I’m like, ‘My bad,’ or whatever,” Rodriguez said. “Then something told me to look up a the screen, because my corner was like, ‘This is bullsh*t.’ I look at the screen, and I’m like, oh, that was all liver.

“At first, I didn’t get my emotions involved in it, that he was milking the clock. But then I was like, you know what, you’ve got to fight. We’re still fighting. They’re giving him five minutes – you take this five minutes, you rest, calm your heart rate down, and let’s get back in there. So I just looked at it, like the show must go on.”

Rodriguez heard his management being warned for coaching, and he even picked up UFC commentator and ex-champ Michael Bisping, whom he heard saying, ‘Aw, Ed is milking this for all it’s worth right now.’”

The other commentator on duty at UFC Vegas 10, Brendan Fitzgerald, relayed UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Rather to clarify the replay couldn’t be used in the situation because it wasn’t a fight-ending sequence.

For Rodriguez, the blame rests squarely with Tognoni’s call of the foul, not Herman.

“They gave him the time,” Rodriguez said. “It’s like, take five. We all knew it was the beginning of the end, and he was able to get a free five minutes from being finished off, so he was like, ‘Oh alright, sick.’ It’s whatever.”

The situation wasn’t the last time a replay rained on Rodriguez’s parade. As it turned out, Herman appeared to put his toe into the fence to add leverage for the sweep that led to the fight-ending submission.

“I was like, ‘C’mon, Ed, why would you do that to yourself,’” Rodriguez said. “Like, he put his foot in the fence to get the sweep, and I’m like, Dude, you did so good. You got the win. Why would you do that? So that, like, threw salt on his victory. But it’s whatever.”

Per Rodriguez’s manager, Tyson Chartier, the appeal currently in process is not only to overturn Herman’s win, but bring clarity to the rules and clarify options available to the referee.

A Nevada Athletic Commission statute, NAC 467.682, states that instant replay can be used “at the conclusion of a contest or exhibition stopped immediately because of an injury to an unarmed combatant ... in order to determine whether the injury in question was caused by a legal blow or a foul.” But the same rule also states a referee “may, at any time during a contest or exhibition, call a time-out to consult with officials of the commission or to view replay footage.”

“[Tognoni] had the ability to make sure his call was right, and he didn’t do that,” Chartier said.

At the post-fight press conference, White confirmed Rodriguez received his show and win money and blasted Tognoni’s performance. In Nevada, official bout results can only be overturned if it’s determined there was a scoring error, unlawful collusion, or the referee incorrectly interpreted the rules. Because the commission considers the referee the sole arbiter of the contest, most fighter appeals are denied. But Chartier hopes his team can get the commission to tighten up its language to help fighters in the future.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, is looking forward to his next fight.

“The thing I’m more excited about is everybody saw me perform, and everybody loved my performance,” he said. “That was the one thing I really cared about. I even looked at my stats; I was like a 70 percent accuracy rate, something like that. It was ridiculous. Feels pretty good.

“If it does [get overturned], it does. Whatever. I’m just already like, I’m past it. I’m ready to fight again. I’m here with my wife, and she’s like, ‘Why are you panting around?’ I’m like, ‘I’m still in fight week mode. Leave me alone.’ I’m going to do all the medical procedures, check everything out, make sure I’m good, and get back to another camp.”

https://www.mmafighting.com/2020/9/...fc-vegas-10-tells-fans-not-to-flame-ed-herman

a9c.png
 
Back
Top