A light heavyweight division bout between Jim Crute and Sam Alvey kicked off the UFC 234 main card, with Crute picking up the first round TKO win.
Alvey argued that referee Marc Goddard made a bad call stopping the bout and UFC President Dana White agrees with the fighter.
“I think he looked damn good, and especially against a really tough guy,” White said at the UFC 234 post-fight press conference (via MMA Junkie). “I think there’s only been three people that have ever finished him out of 40-something fights. I didn’t agree with the stoppage – I thought it was a bad stoppage. A lot of those shots were hitting him on the arm. He was obviously hurt. But the fight could have gone a little longer and we could have seen a little more of Crute. Bad stoppage in my opinion.”
Goddard has officiated Alvey’s last two fights and Alvey suffered TKO losses in both of those encounters.
Crute dropped Alvey early in their bout with a head kick and White said a near stoppage by Goddard was a mistake as well.
“The ref screwed that up, too,” White said. “The ref jumped in there and he thought the ref was breaking it up. The ref did a really, really bad job. Real poor refereeing in that fight, and when something like that happens, it could have cost Crute the fight, because if Alvey got back up … and then he goes to stop it too soon, and then he stopped it too early. It happens sometimes, and it sucks for Sam.”
There has been no word given by Alvey’s camp as to whether or not the fighter plans on filing an appeal over the loss, which was his second straight under the UFC banner.
