Referee Jason Herzog comments on severe fan backlash over Jared Cannonier vs. Nassourdine Imavov stoppage

Referee Jason Herzog recently provided his perspective after facing a lot of backlash for prematurely halting the contest between Nassourdine Imavov and Jared Cannonier at UFC Louisville. The event took place this Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

The main event of UFC Louisville featured a middleweight showdown between Imavov and Cannonier. Imavov entered the bout with a majority decision win against Roman Dolidze earlier this year at UFC Fight Night 235.

Meanwhile, Cannonier was coming off with two strong victories over top middleweights Sean Strickland and Marvin Vettori after losing the title fight against Israel Adesanya at UFC 276.

The match between Cannonier and Imavov was quite well-matched for the first three rounds. As the fight went on, Imavov began to sense the range of Cannonier, even though the latter fought in different positions. Imavov countered Cannonier's leg kicks each time 'The Killa Gorilla' tried one.

Things went completely in favor of Imavov in Round 4, as Cannonier was hurt by a clean right hook by the former. Imavov pursued and landed some damaging shots at the 40-year-old as he attempted to flee. Cannonier was unsteady on his feet, but he seemed to be defending himself when Herzog intervened to call off the fight.

Cannonier challenged the decision. The crowd quickly objected to this and began booing the referee.

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A significant portion of the mixed martial arts community believed that Imavov's stoppage was premature, although he was heading toward a finish.

Herzog recently took to X in response to everyone's criticism, writing:

''I get it. I know what I was seeing in the moment, but I've gotten enough feedback telling me I need to reevaluate, so I will.''

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