Glover Teixeira’s coach John Hackleman believes referee Jason Herzog did a great job reffing the fight against Anthony Smith.
In the main UFC Jacksonville, Teixeira was taking on Smith where he won by fifth-round TKO. Yet, after the event, many complained about the lack of stoppage saying Smith’s corner and the ref let him down by not stopping it in the third or fourth round. But, for Hackleman, he says Herzog did a great job in reffing that contest.
“I think the referee did a great job, first of all,” Hackleman told MMA Junkie. “I think there were times where it looked stoppable, but people gotta remember, I’m the stopper. Everybody that knows me, even the referees, I stop fights with my fighters very quickly. Too quickly I think sometimes, so it doesn’t just show caring for the fighters. Sometimes I fight to stop the fights quickly enough where my fighter probably would have recovered and maybe had a second chance.
“And sometimes that means double their purse because they didn’t win, they don’t get a win bonus, and sometimes it means taking them out of a title contention, so stopping the fight has a lot of ramifications. I stop them too early, and I admit that, and my fighters know that, and if they have a problem with that, they can have someone else work their corner. So then there’s stopping it perfectly – like how many people do things perfectly? Sometimes it’s gonna err on a little too late and, in my case, sometimes it errs on too soon.”
Although Hackleman says Herzog did a good job, if Smith was his fighter he would’ve thrown in the towel. But, he knows “Lionheart” was still dangerous at that point and could’ve knocked out Teixeira in the fourth round.
“Watching it from where I was watching it, my vantage point was, Anthony Smith was still dangerous,” Hackleman said. “He could have stopped it in the third round. But, don’t forget, Anthony Smith nailed Glover a couple of times in the fourth round. One of those punches could have easily knocked out a fighter. So if he stopped it in the third, now he would have never had a chance to win it in the fourth. So are you stopping it too soon or too late? I don’t know.
“I wasn’t in his corner. And I know this for a fact. I know Marc Montoya loves his fighters and treats them like family but, with that said, I would have stopped it. But that’s not always the right way. All I know is, I wasn’t in his corner, I wasn’t watching it like that. I was watching it thinking he’s still dangerous till the end, as Glover’s cornerman.”
