Former referee John McCarthy thinks Jason Herzog made the correct decision to take a point from Deiveson Figueiredo in the UFC 256 headliner.
This past Saturday’s fight between flyweight champion Figueiredo (20-1-1 MMA, 9-1-1 UFC) and Brandon Moreno was ruled a majority draw. The point deduction by Herzog was a deciding factor.
A lot was made of Herzog’s decision to take a point from Figueiredo, who was penalized after striking Moreno (18-5-2 MMA, 6-2-2 UFC) with a low blow that had him visibly hurt and coughing. Figueiredo was issued no prior warning, but McCarthy explained the impact of the blow has to factor in.
“That point deduction is absolutely the way it’s supposed to be done,” McCarthy said on his “Weighing In podcast.” “A lot of people say, ‘That was the first groin strike.’ It doesn’t matter. Did it alter Brandon Moreno and make it to where Figueiredo actually had an advantage based upon a foul? Yeah. You want to get kicked in the nuts? We’ll give you a point.
“It sucks, and so when he takes the point, what he’s doing is he’s trying to even that playing field back out. Figueiredo has got an advantage doing something that was illegal. I’m going to try evening it out. My only way of evening this out in this situation is to take a point. It’s what he did, and it was the right call.”
One judge scored the fight in favor of Figueiredo. The other two judges scored the fight a draw. Figueiredo retained the title, but the pair, who put on a “Fight of the Year” contender, are expected to rematch at some point next year.
