Carlos Prates produced one of the best knockouts of all time at UFC 319.
The ‘Fighting Nerds’ star returned to the Octagon on Saturday night with a first-round spinning elbow KO of perennial contender Geoff Neal, one of two spinning elbow knockouts in Chicago.
The performance put Carlos Prates back in the win column after losing to Ian Machado Garry via decision in April.
Jason Herzog was the referee for the welterweight bout and he stopped the contest right at the final bell of round 1, after Neal had been dropped by the elbow in the final two seconds.
A former UFC fighter wonders if the stoppage was premature.
- READ MORE: Geoff Neal jokes ‘ref stepped in too early’ as he breaks silence on his vicious KO loss at UFC 319
Josh Thomson argues Geoff Neal should’ve been given chance to recover at UFC 319
Unlike in recent fights, Herzog didn’t come under fire for his stoppage in Prates vs. Neal at UFC 319.
Neal fell to the canvas on his back and the referee started to cross his arms to signal the fight was over as the bell rang. Neal didn’t attempt to get up and the contender remained on the canvas for a few minutes after.
UFC veteran Josh Thomson pointed out Neal wasn’t given a chance to go back to his corner and recover in between rounds, despite the obvious impact of the KO blow at the end of round 1.
“So, it wasn’t an early stoppage?” Thomson asked ‘Big’ John McCarthy on the Weighing In Podcast.
“The bell rang. Prates walked away. Now, the ref [should] go, hey, walk up to the corner.
You have that, you got to give him a chance, right? Walk to the corner,” Thomson said.
“He waved it off before his back even hit the ground.
“There’s a discussion to be had,” Thomson continued.
“Do you not look at him and go, the round’s over. If you can get up and walk to your corner, let the fight happen. If you can’t, if I say, get up, fighter. [If] you can’t, fight’s over. But he was already waving it off.
“The ref is already standing over him waving the fight is off,” Thomson said of why Neal didn’t move after he was grounded.
“If I see that. If I see a ref doing that, the fight’s over. So, why would I move? He just laid back.”
John McCarthy defends referee’s ‘great stoppage’ at UFC 319
No follow-up shots were needed from Prates as referee Jason Herzog stopped the contest at the bell.
“It was a great, great stoppage by Jason,” longtime referee John McCarthy praised Herzog’s stoppage.
McCarthy disagreed with Thomson’s comments regarding the stoppage, saying Neal was unable to continue after being dropped by Prates.
“He didn’t just lay back. He closed his eyes because he was in pain,” McCarthy said of Neal.