Dana White clowns anyone who thinks Gokhan Saki's UFC debut win was stopped early

Gokhan Saki’s UFC debut largely lived up to the hype. Some folks complained his first-round knockout of Henrique da Silva was stopped early, but UFC President Dana White is not among them.

After a wild few minutes of action in the light heavyweight division at UFC Fight Night 117 on Friday, Saki (1-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) dropped da Silva (12-4 MMA, 2-4 UFC) with a massive left hand in his first MMA fight since 2004.

Before Saki could step in for any follow-up shots, the referee jumped between the fighters and waved off the contest, giving Saki the first-round knockout in the FXX-televised bout at Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

Da Silva momentarily protested the stoppage, and a number of fellow fighters voiced on Twitter they also thought it should have gone longer. White saw no controversy, though, and said anyone who did should avoid a career as a referee (via Instagram):

WOW @gokhansaki

A post shared by Dana White (@danawhite) on Sep 22, 2017 at 8:22pm PDT

Anyone who thinks that’s a bad stoppage PLEASE don’t ever apply to be refs!!!!!! ??????

On top of White’s opinion, Saki said at UFC Fight Night 117’s post-fight news conference that he thought the referee did his job effectively.

“I’m not the referee,” Saki told MMAjunkie. “I think the referee did a good job, because I hit him many times, and the referee say a couple of times, ‘Fight back.’ He was trying to fight back, but I think I hit him at least 10 times hard, and they need to protect the fighters also. This is a feeling, instinct from the referee. What can we say? I’m a fighter, I’m happy they stopped the fight. I win the fight. Sorry for da Silva if it’s not the right thing, but I think the referee did a good job.”

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 117, check out the UFC Events section of the site.