Travis Browne appeared to take more damage than was neccessary during a brutal knockout loss to Derrick Lewis on Sunday night at UFC Fight Night 105 and referee Mario Yamasaki has now admitted he should have stopped the fight earlier.
“Right in the moment, I already knew that I allowed two extra punches, but the reaction time from a heavyweight is different than a lighter fighter,” Yamasaki told MMAfighting.com. “So when (Lewis) landed the punch where (Browne) went out, he was able to land two more before I came in to stop the fight. But, for sure, I should have stopped it a little earlier. Everyone has his days, and I can’t give excuses.”
Yamasaki says that Browne’s insistence that he was ok after being hurt earlier in the fight had influenced his decision on when to step in.
“It’s hard to please everyone. I try to be as consistent as possible, but sometimes you can’t. I wanted to give him another chance because early in the fight he was getting knocked out standing and he said ‘I’m fine, I’m fine,’ and I saw that he was trying to defend himself so I let him continue, and on the ground, it went a little longer.
“There’s no excuse. I know I should have stopped it earlier, but it was so fast I couldn’t stop it.”
Browne suffered his third loss in a row on the night and now has just two wins in his last seven fights, while Lewis extended his unbeaten stretch to six fights.
