Like Velasquez-dos Santos, UFC's White believes Andrade-Sexton went on too long

MANCHESTER – Dana White was having a bit of deja vu on his visit to England.

Just last week, he sat cageside at UFC 166 to watch Cain Velasquez retain his heavyweight title against Junior dos Santos in a bout he believed should have been stopped midway through because of the beating Velasquez was dishing out.

And on Saturday, he watched from the back as Jessica Andrade (10-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) delivered a similar beating to Rosi Sexton (13-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC) – again wishing a corner, a referee, someone would stop the punishment.

He also flashed back to the time when he wasn’t a fan of women’s MMA at all, an opinion that changed only recently, not long before he brought women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey into the UFC from Strikeforce and started the promotion’s first female division.

“I agree 100 percent that fight should have been stopped,” White said of Andrade’s win, which took place on the preliminary card of UFC Fight Night 30 at Phones4u Arena in Manchester, England – Sexton’s home city. “It’s a fight like that that made me not like women’s MMA, actually. I saw a very one-sided, mismatched fight (previously).”

Sexton fell to 0-2 in the UFC after losing a competitive fight against Alexis Davis in Davis’ home country of Canada in June at UFC 161. Andrade, from Brazil, picked up her first win in the UFC after a loss to Liz Carmouche in July.

From the outset, Sexton couldn’t get anything going, and Andrade lit her up in the striking department. Through one round, Sexton’s face was showing visible damage. And in the second, Andrade continued the beating – getting a 10-8 round from two of the three judges on her way to the dominant decision victory.

White confessed that the fight didn’t turn out the way most thought it would.

“It’s one of those fights that looked good on paper, and then in reality it was a horrible, one-sided mismatch,” he said. “And it should have been stopped. I said what we should do is bring the ref out in the hallway and let someone punch him in the face for 15 minutes, and nobody jump in to help him, just to see what it feels like.”

After UFC 166, White said dos Santos’ cornermen should have thrown in the towel on their fighter when he was being battered by Velasquez.

Sexton was dropped a couple times in the second round, but just kept absorbing the punches on the feet and wasn’t able to offer much offense in response.

“I was impressed with how much punishment Rosi could take,” Andrade said. “I can’t imagine anyone that could take as much as that. I was going for the knockout, but props to Rosi. I will train more and more, win more fights and hopefully I can get to the title at some point.”

But it seems that lately, there is less talk about fighters withstanding punishment in that proverbial “warrior spirit” and more talk about if they should be taking that much extra punishment to begin with.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 30, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.