"I was winning the fight, but I got caught with a shot, obviously. This isn’t boxing, this is MMA, the upper echelon of MMA. this is the UFC and you expect better referees than that. I’m allowed to grapple. Someone falling into your guard does not make it a TKO. This is absolutely ridiculous for this to happen in my home state nine, 10 weeks after what happened last time. What the [referees] are doing is taking food of my kids’ table. Obviously, I think I was dazed — I got hit with a right hand or whatever he hit me with. But, never was I unconscious or not knowing what was going on. I’m allowed to play guard in jiu-jitsu in MMA. I’m allowed to grapple. He got on top of me, but never landed a significant shot to finish me. [The referee] looked dumbfounded in the cage — he knew he made a mistake and that’s what really upsets me. There’s a lot of money on the line. Like I said, I have two kids at home to feed. And, he looked at me like he made a mistake. It’s unfortunate. It’s a loss. It’s a lot of money taken out of my hands — we’re trying to buy a house. We’re closing on Tuesday … and I got two young kids at home and two times in a row now I’ve got thousands and thousands of dollars taken away from me."
-- Johnny Bedford is none too pleased with the decision of referee Kerry Hatley to stop his match against Cody Gibson too soon last night (June 28, 2014) at UFC Fight Night 44 from AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. And neither was Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White (read his reaction here). "Brutal" claims he was well within his right to get stunned and resort to a defensive position to clear the cobwebs, but Hatley had no business intervening when Gibson had done nothing additional to compel a stoppage. The video replay seems to suggest Bedford is correct, but that won't erase the "L" from his record, which was preceded by a "No Contest" against Rany Yahya because of an accidental headbutt just two months ago. That's two opportunities to take home two win bonuses that Bedford claims were taken from him to provide for his family. Whether or not White and Co. treat Bedford's "loss like a win" as in the recent case of Ross Pearson remains to be seen. Anyone think Bedford -- and his family -- deserves the benefit of the doubt in this unfortunate case?