Manuel Torres reacts to criticism of referee stoppage over Drew Dober knockout

Manuel Torres scored the biggest win of his career at UFC Mexico, but the finish was not without controversy.

It wasn’t a question of whether Torres deserved his first-round knockout win over Drew Dober, as Torres had Dober badly hurt with a right hand and made sure to seal the deal with a series of thudding hammer fists. But the timing of the stoppage caused some criticism to be directed at referee Mike Beltran.

UFC lightweight Renato Moicano commented on social media, “If he dies, he dies,” referencing the infamous Rocky 4 scene where Apollo Creed is killed in a fight by Ivan Drago.

At the evening’s post-fight press conference, Torres was asked about the controversy.

“If you look at the replay, watching the referee, like, I’m making a lot of damage to my opponent, but he didn’t stop the fight, so I’m a professional, so I keep doing it,” Torres said via a Spanish translator. “But yeah, of course I feel that my opponent, he was a little down even before the stoppage.”

Though Torres acknowledged he felt the bout could have been stopped earlier, he also pointed out that Beltran may have had the misfortune of being in a position where he couldn’t properly assess Dober’s condition. The closing sequence saw Torres battering Dober with unprotected hammer fists, with Dober’s face only partially visible as he hung on to Torres’ leg.

Still, it appeared there was more than enough visually for Beltran to call the fight. Torres doesn’t fault him for the error.

“Just in certain positions, that can happen,” Torres said. “In this one, of course, Drew Dober was looking down, so for the referee it was hard to watch if he was out or no. But yeah, I think that they could work a little bit on that kind of thing, but he was just in a really specific position.”

Other than to keep fighting, Torres had little control over the stoppage, which was followed by Dober getting back to his feet and squaring up, seemingly oblivious to the bout being over.

Regardless, Torres has put himself into position for a bigger opportunity with four wins and four bonuses in his first five UFC appearances, and he hopes to be booked for the newly announced UFC 320 event set to take place in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“UFC just announced Mexican card on Sept. 13, so of course I want to be part of that event,” Torres said. “I feel that I do a lot of things in the name of Mexico and for sure I would like to fight in Mexico again. With a top 15 fighter, with a top 15 opponent.”