Upon further review, perhaps Yoel Romero isn’t as big a jerk as first thought.
Our initial collective reaction to Romero’s controversial win over Tim Kennedy at Saturday’s UFC 178 was to sharpen up the pitchforks and double-check our stock of torches.
At first blush, it sure looked like Romero and his corner conspired to give the fighter an extra half-minute to recover from a second round where he was saved by the bell from a certain knockout. When Romero stormed out and turned the tables on Kennedy in the third—knocking him out 38 seconds into the final stanza—it seemed pretty sensible to cry foul.
Since then, to paraphrase the younger of the two Jeffery Lebowskis, a lot of new (stuff) has come to light. We’ve been over and over the unfortunately named “Stool Gate” controversy ad nauseam and at this point, there appears to be only one option to clear it all up:
Let’s do it again, brother.
Romero was so close to going away. He stayed on his stool a little longer than he should have than wrecked Kennedy. Wow.
— Josh Gross (@yay_yee) September 28, 2014
By now, we’ve heard about the extra Vaseline applied to Romero’s face by UFC cut man Brad Tate. We’ve heard about the language barrier between referee John McCarthy and corner man Paulino Hernandez, seen the GIF of Kennedy briefly grabbing Romero’s glove in order to land his best shots to close out the second round and witnessed Romero’s low blow (via punch, of all things) in the first.
We’ve heard both Kennedy’s complaints and Romero head coach Ricardo Liborio pull a Scott Coker and claim he didn’t really see what happened. We’ve also heard Nevada State Athletic Commission Chairman Francisco Aguilar tell Bleacher Report there likely isn’t cause to overturn Romero’s victory.
"It was a bunch of things all happening at once," Aguilar said. "Our inspector had to get the grease off his face. Our inspector who was supposed to get the stool out didn't get it out in time."
So, after all that rigmarole, who’s to blame here?
Aguilar’s own words make this situation sound less like Romero’s fault and more like an administrative error. Certainly, either McCarthy or another NSAC official should’ve yanked that stool out from under the fighter’s backside while they attempted to get the excess Vaseline off his face. Vaseline that was only there because a UFC cut man smeared it there.
It’s also difficult to know how our immediate reaction to these events might have been different had we experienced them without a UFC broadcaster talking over the action. As it aired lived on pay-per-view, color commentator Joe Rogan appeared to place the blame squarely on Romero’s corner.
“Romero’s corner is purposefully, slowly walking out (of the cage),” Rogan said. “They still have the stool in there! What are they doing? He’s still sitting on the stool. This is ridiculous! Why isn’t he standing up? Why don’t they get that stool out of there? No, he’s not done, but what they’re doing is they saved him some time. They gave him an extra 15-20 seconds (to recover).”
Hard to blame Rogan either. Interpreting the action in the cage and explaining it for the folks at home is his job, after all. But as we all watched the PPV for the first time, it was hard to grasp the nuance of the interaction between McCarthy, the NSAC official and Romero’s corner. As a result, we thrust a lot of criticism at Romero, when perhaps he didn’t deserve it. At least not all of it.
Amid all the chaos, opinion and information, however, one thing is clear: Both fighters got jobbed here.
Kennedy appeared on the verge of victory at the end of the second stanza and then his opponent was given extra time to recover. Less than two minutes later, he ended up the loser of an important middleweight contender bout.
For Romero, the ensuing hullabaloo has robbed him of his rightful place among the top-tier 185-pound title challengers. Instead of debating what and who is next for him, we’re left trying to parse who’s to blame for his victory. That’s sort of an unenviable position.
Given that their first 10-plus minutes together were a wild, back-and-forth time, I’m not sure anyone would complain about getting a second opportunity to watch Kennedy and Romero fight. Especially now that Chris Weidman’s title defense against Vitor Belfort has been pushed back to February—and with Jacare Souza potentially next up. It’s not like the middleweight division is pressed for time, anyway.
We’re lucky that in this sport there is typically an easy solution for controversy, hurt feelings and argument: Just have them fight again.
Maybe the second time around we’ll get some better answers.
