Dana White believes Sam Alvey could have been given a little more time in his technical knockout loss against Jim Crute at UFC 234.
The contest was halted 2:49 into the opening stanza, as the 22-year-old Australian unleashed a salvo of punches with Alvey on all fours. While many of the blows missed or glanced off of Alvey’s arm, referee Marc Goddard decided “Smile’n Sam wasn’t doing enough to defend himself and halted the bout. Alvey vehemently protested the stoppage, but at that point it was to no avail.
While White was impressed with Crute, a Contender Series alum who improved to 10-0 in victory, he believes that Alvey could have been allowed to recover.
“I think he looked damn good, and especially against a really tough guy,” White said of Crute at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I think there’s only been three people that have ever finished him [Alvey] 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.”
There was also some confusion earlier in the fight, when Crute dropped Alvey with a punch and it appeared that Goddard was stepping in to intervene. However, the veteran official was apparently only moving in for a closer look, and Alvey was able to return to his feet.
“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.”