UFC president Dana White says he was worried Calvin Kattar could have died following his lopsided loss to Max Holloway at UFC on ABC 1.
Kattar was on the wrong end of a historic beating as Holloway shattered the record for significant strikes landed in a UFC fight, landing 445 significant strikes on his opponent. Kattar showed amazing durability and courage by making it the full five rounds, but it was hard to watch at times. The fourth round, especially, saw Kattar receive an obscene amount of damage and many felt that referee Herb Dean should have stepped in and stopped the fight, or that Kattar’s corner should have thrown in the towel. But neither of those things happened, and White was concerned for him.
Check out the footage of White having a very tough conversation with UFC executive Hunter Campbell about Kattar below, from the ‘UFC’s Grand New Stage’ video.
“He took so much f*cking punishment in this fight, I’m freaking out a little bit, man. I don’t know. I don’t like it. This reminds me of the kind of fight where the fight’s over, and he walks out back and f*cking dies. I think that f*cking Herb Dean should’ve stopped it before the (fifth) round. He was wobbling all over the f*cking place,” White said.
“When we had him up against the cage, that’s when he had him,” Campbell said.
“He should have stopped the fight right there,” White said.
Kattar ultimately suffered numerous injuries in the fight, including a broken nose and eight staples in his scalp to close wounds. Fortunately, it wasn’t more serious than that, but it could have been. Hopefully, a fight like this is a learning lesson that referees and corners need to err on the side of caution and save their fighters.
Were you as worried as Dana White was about Calvin Kattar dying against Max Holloway?