Marc Goddard, who refereed UFC 292 and UFC 293, 'open to dialog' with Aljamain Sterling after Israel Adesanya's first-round escape
In light of the recently concluded UFC 293 main event between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland, Aljamain Sterling has shared the interaction he had with referee Marc Goddard.
Strickland shocked the world on September 10 by outclassing 'The Last Stylebender' in their 25-minute fight and earning a dominant unanimous decision victory at UFC 293. All three judges scored the contest 49-46 in favor of 'Tarzan'.
One of the standout moments of the fight came in the closing seconds of the first round. Strickland dropped Adesanya with a straight right hand and proceeded to land a barrage of strikes that mostly went unanswered by the New Zealander.
One MMA fan took to Twitter to highlight that referee Marc Goddard allowed Adesanya to absorb 26 strikes from Strickland after getting dropped and did not stop the fight.
The person then compared it with the UFC 292 main event between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O'Malley. Goddard refereed that fight too but the Twitter user argued that the referee did not give Sterling the same opportunity to recover as he did to Adesanya in the UFC 293 main event.
"Marc Goddard let Adesanya eat 26(TWENTY SIX) unanswered shots from Sean Strickland and didn’t even think of stopping the fight yet he barely gave Aljamain Sterling a chance to recover vs 'Suga' We all know Marc got 'the call'…"
Sterling responded to the tweet by revealing that he had a cordial interaction with Goddard at the UFC 293 event in Sydney.
"I feel you on this for sure. Gooddard and I spoke in Sydney after the fight. He’s open to dialogue and I respect the hell out of that. Unfortunately, what’s done is done. I’ll be back for certain tho!"
Aljamain Sterling suggests competing on the same card as Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland 2
After the UFC 293 main event concluded, UFC president Dana White was asked about the possibility of a rematch between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland for the UFC middleweight title.
White responded by saying that he was open to the idea of a second fight between the two athletes.
Aljamain Sterling then suggested a rematch between him and Sean O'Malley on the same card as the potential second encounter between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland.