Referee Jason Herzog opens up on his controversial stoppage in Derrick Lewis vs Tallison Teixeira

Speaking on the Weighing In Podcast, veteran MMA referee John McCarthy shared details from a phone call with Jason Herzog, who reflected on his decision during the main event.

“He goes, John, when he got hit, he went down,” McCarthy said.

“[Herzog] goes, I saw him trying to move. I was looking at the shots that Lewis was throwing. I saw that a couple of them missed. Then, I saw that there was one that was decent, then there was a huge one. Then, he made a sound off of it and it was one of those that’s like, oh, I’ve gotta really think about stopping this.

“He says and I started to come in and that’s about the time he’s climbing the fence and I thought [Teixeira] was more hurt than he actually was.

“He goes so I would say it was a little bit early because I have to change what I’m doing. I have to look at it,” McCarthy said of his conversation with Herzog.

“And we talked about it and stuff, and this is what happens. You are responsible for someone’s health and safety, and sometimes it’s hard to let things go. But you gotta do it because you gotta give, although Teixeira has not done a lot in the UFC, he’s got the ability to be that main event fighter, taking on Derrick Lewis.

“He’s worked himself to that position based upon his couple of wins there in the UFC, and you gotta give him that opportunity.”

Herzog also mentioned his concern about Teixeira being left completely unconscious by Lewis.

John McCarthy discusses Tallison Teixeira’s illegal cage grab

McCarthy, who has been a fixture in MMA officiating since the sport’s early days, noted that Herzog had grounds to take a point or two from Teixeira for grabbing the cage while getting up.

But with Lewis pushing hard for a finish at that moment, it wasn’t an easy call to make.

“He could’ve stopped the action, taken a point, maybe two points based upon that grab, it saved you because you weren’t getting up off of the ground.

“Could be one point, could be two because he says it was intentional that he did it, and he would have put him straight back down in that position on the ground with Derrick Lewis on top of him, and you restart the fight.

“But you’re in this position where you have Derrick Lewis who has hurt somebody, you don’t wanna take away that opportunity.

“That’s not fair to Derrick either because if the guy cheated, he fouled to get himself out of that position,” McCarthy added.