Coach Eugene Bareman thanked God Marc Goddard refereed the UFC 281 main event between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira, and not Steve Mazzagatti.
Although now-defeated middleweight champ Adesanya feels he could have survived Pereira’s fifth-round onslaught, coach Bareman ‘saw some signs that he [Adesanya] was in trouble’ and feels Goddard made the right call in stopping the fight.
During a recent interview with Combat TV, the City Kickboxing founder explained why he felt the stoppage was fair despite some fighters being ‘pretty annoyed’ with Goddard’s decision.
“I can’t sit here and truthfully say that was an early stoppage,” Bareman said (h/t Sportskeeda).