There’s a lot of blame being tossed around in the wake of UFC on FOX 30.
After fans got done screaming at referee Marc Goddard, who penalized Eddie Alvarez for throwing an illegal elbow against Dustin Poirier last Saturday night (July 28, 2018) in Calgary, “The Underground King” came under fire for making such a boneheaded move.
One that cost him mount against the fence.
Now, it’s coach Mark Henry’s turn to fall on his sword, after revealing to The Ariel Helwani Show that he instructed Alvarez to land an elbow on “The Diamond,” but inadvertently made the 12-6 motion with his arm when he really intended for it to be slanted.
You can watch the video sequence of his coaching gaff here.
“He definitely did what he saw me do,” Henry said (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “Definitely my fault. I definitely wasn’t meaning to be cheap at all. I’m not stupid. I’ve been doing this a long time. I know he can’t do a top elbow. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of fights that I’ve done, every single time they say you can’t do that elbow. It was my fault, I feel horrible.”
Rightly so.
Not only was this a technical knockout loss for Alvarez — who got smashed by Poirier after the referee stand up — it was the final fight on “The Underground King’s” UFC contract, so he now heads to the bargaining table on a loss.
As for Poirier, he may very well be in line for a crack at the lightweight crown, depending on how things shake out between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Until then, only time will tell if Alvarez ends up with UFC.
Or back here.
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