Jeremy Stephens capped off a violent night of action at UFC on FOX 28 from Orlando, Florida, but his main event win wasn’t without controversy. Stephens threw a couple of elbows that hit his opponent Josh Emmett square in the back of the head during their final exchange, and also threw a knee that seemed to miss a clearly grounded Emmett by a hair. That left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth regarding the finish.
But not everybody.
UFC fighters, like their fans, seemed divided over whether or not Stephens had gotten a ‘clean kill’ or not.
Here’s some of the better comments from UFC fighters:
Illegal knee AF!
— Cody Garbrandt (@Cody_Nolove) February 25, 2018
I would file for a no contest lowkey. That knee grazed the top of the head, looked illegal af. Jeremy do hit hard but josh was looking good
— Kevin MTP Lee (@MoTownPhenom) February 25, 2018
So knees to downed opponent are legal now? Was there a fuckin rules change?
— Andre Fili (@TouchyFili) February 25, 2018
Jeremy Stephens still has that serious power, regardless of where his strikes land. If the ref lets it go, ref lets it go. #ufcorlando
— The Spartan (@EliasTheodorou) February 25, 2018
Elbows were fine!! Emmett turned the back of his head into the elbows while Stevens was going for the finish...not much a man can do about that #UFCOrlando
— Alex Volkanovski (@alexvolkanovski) February 25, 2018
Elbows were legit and the knee missed. ♂️
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) February 25, 2018
So as you can see, not even the fighters themselves seem to know what constitutes a legal finish in this case. Which just goes to underscore what a difficult job the ref has in the heat of the moment.
What do you think, Maniacs?