British UFC star Sam Patterson continued to fight for a minute after he was knocked out by Yanal Ashmoz in the first round of his debut.
Patterson was highly-touted ahead of his promotional bow at UFC 286 in London on Saturday night but was stopping inside four minutes by the unbeaten Ashmoz. Referee Marc Goddard was slow to halt the fight and Patterson continued to show the affects of his defeat after the bout had been waved off.
Goddard attempted to calm him down against the cage but Patterson continued to fight, trying to put his hands on the official as if to wrestle him. Eventually, his coach was forced to intervene and tell the Watford native that the contest was over.
Fans took to social media to criticise the stoppage and to show concern for the beaten man. "Genuinely hard to watch." said one an. "Imagine how messed up you have to be for three of your senses to fail you like this. He doesn't see that there's several fully dressed people in front of him instead of his opponent nor does he hear them trying to explain what happened. He's also literally grabbing Marc's collar and doesn't even realise that that's fabric he's holding on to."
Another worried fan added: "He got rocked, then took a good 10 solid grounds strikes before going out, then woke up and tried to put Goddard in his guard, then while being told to sit down tried to clinch Goddard. Being a referee is hard." Another said: "Usually they snap out of it pretty quickly, but that seemed to go on for a very long time. He definitely needs to get checked out immediately, there's definitely something not right there."
Ashmoz and Patterson were both making their UFC debuts, with the Brit a slight favourite amongst bookies. But it took just seconds for the Israeli fighter to take control and land a stunning victory that left his rival attempting to grapple with referee Goddard for minutes after the bout.
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"The fans were loud because my opponent was from here," he told media after the fight. "Obviously they're going to be with him. But that doesn't change anything because when you're in the cage and it closes the crowd doesn't help you. So I don't care too much about that.
"The overhands work very well against tall guys and most of my fights the guys are taller than me, so I'm used to it because I'm always the small one... The guy was out, man. He was moving a little bit before eating these shots but every shot I landed it opened his face.
"If the referee could have stopped that, then why not? He's the referee so it's his decision so until I win, I go. I was waiting for him to throw something so I could go inside and work. He kept going and I knocked him out."
