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'Stop the fight' trends after Aldo is left bloodied in UFC 251 fight, Angry Internet says 'fire the referee'

The two MMA fighters indulged in a rather violent match, which saw one of them, Aldo, bloodied and battered by the end of the fifth round

BY CHAITRA KRISHNAMURTHY

PUBLISHED JUL 12, 2020

The UFC 251 event on Saturday, July 11, seems to have disturbed fans following Petr Yan and Jose Aldo's fight. The two MMA fighters indulged in a rather violent match, which saw one of them, Aldo, bloodied and battered by the end of the fifth round. The referee for the match, Leon Roberts, didn’t intervene despite Yan landing powerful punches to Aldo's head and body, until he got mounted by Yan, with blood oozing out of his face. A video started doing the rounds showing the referee not initiating a stop even after Aldo was found lying on the floor leaking blood.

Viewers clearly weren't happy about the gory turn the UFC match took, with many blaming the referee for not acting at the right time, putting Aldo's life at risk. While one user wrote, "Who was that ref? HE'S GOTTA KNOW THAT WHEN A FIGHTER WAS DEFENSELESS AND NO LONGER DEFENDS HIMSELF THE STOP THE FIGHT. THAT'S PART OF HIS DUTY AS A REFEREE. STOP THE FIGHT! I KNOW DANA WHITE REALLY HAD TO BE SEETHING RIGHT NOW. #UFC251"

Some noted that the referee should be held accountable for Aldo's condition including permanent damages caused during the fight. "holy f**king shit did somebody check to see if that man is all right? That UFC ref needs to be fired for that garbage. Could’ve caused permanent damage, stop the fight!! #ufc," wrote one.

“Holy f**k why did it take this long to stop the fight man I’m so f**king mad fire this ref," added another Twitter user demanding Roberts to be removed from his role. Many users started trending "STOP THE FIGHT" to bring to UFC's attention the impact of the violence its fights could have on viewers.

One user wrote, "I'm a god-less, womanizing, violence worshiping madman, and even I think that it was the wrong move to not stop the fight #UFC251." Anther added, "STOP THE FIGHT trends because viewers are upset some ref won't stop a #UFC251 #BLOODSPORT where a man is literally being beaten to death on live TV with blood spraying everywhere... Maybe stop watching blood sports? JFC, are we barbarians?"