Poor old Artem Lobov could not shake Ryan Hall.
The Ultimate Fighter Finale turned out to be one for the purists as the American dominated The Russian Hammer from the outset and rode him like a school-bag for most of the final round.
Lobov had few answers to Hall’s constant takedown attempts and he easily won the bout on all the judge’s cards.
UFC president Dana White was hoping for more in the contest and sent out this tweet soon after Hall’s hand was raised in victory.
I don't disagree with any of u 👎🏼
— danawhite (@danawhite) December 12, 2015
In the post-fight press conference, White explained the tweet and criticised veteran referee Herb Dean.
“I’ll tell you what,” White began, “if any of you saw what I tweeted at the end of the night, what drove me crazy was that Herb Dean let him stay on his back for the last three minutes standing.
“No damage was being done. Nobody was really advancing their position. And this is for everything — this is for The Ultimate Fighter.”
“Stand them back up,” White continued. “Herb, I think, is one of the best [but] I don’t think he did his best tonight.
“And then I saw a lot of people talking negatively about [Hall]. One of the things about this kid is, with his jiu-jitsu, it’s so sick and at such a high level.
“You haven’t seen a guy who can go in and just slide in and take the leg and try to step over to the other side. You know, you’re in his guard and try to step to the other side and he gets the leg, and he goes from one thing to another to the back.
“And even though he didn’t get the submission, if he had pulled off one of those submissions people wouldn’t be bitching about it
“Which is one of the reasons I think that Herb should have allowed them to fight for the last three minutes. There was no fighting in the last three minutes of that fight. That’s irritating.
“You know, and I think that leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.”
