UFC 277: Dana White cries 'early stoppage' in Derrick Lewis bout

UFC president Dana White has questioned referee Dan Miragliotta’s stoppage from Sergei Pavlovich’s win over Derrick Lewis.

Last Saturday night at UFC 277, Derrick Lewis fell to his third loss in four fights as he was finished by TKO at the hands of Sergei Pavlovich. The bout lasted just 55 seconds and, based on that statistic alone, you can probably tell how chaotic the encounter was.

Lewis had his fair share of moments and was able to land on the Russian star but in the end, it was Pavlovich who managed to drop the veteran before Dan Miragliotta stepped in and called it off.

The big problem, though, was that the Texan popped back up almost instantly and protested against the stoppage.

A lot of questions were subsequently directed towards the ref and as it turns out, Dana White also wasn’t convinced by the decision.

“I like the ref, but I wouldn’t debate that that was an early stoppage,” White said. “It was definitely an early stoppage. When you jump right back up like that and you’re ready to go – listen, he was a little rocked, but no more rocked than Julianna was three, four times during the fight, and she fought five rounds. Miragliotta made a mistake, but it happens.

“So I don’t think it diminishes Derrick Lewis at all. I’d have liked to see that fight go on.”

“I think it was too soon, but to be fair, Miragliotta’s a great ref,” White said. “The way that he fell, probably nine out of the 10 people in this room would have jumped on him and stopped the fight, including me.”

There’s always a chance that they run Lewis vs Pavlovich back but given how many other names are out there at heavyweight for both men, it seems unlikely.

‘The Black Beast’ is now 37 years old and even though you could argue that’s young for