Controversy Report: UFC Shanghai

Controversy Report: UFC Shanghai

UFC Shanghai provided us with one of the biggest upsets we’ve seen so far in 2025 as Johnny Walker put a halt on Mingyang Zhang’s hype train. Undefeated inside the UFC at the time, Zhang was a sizable favorite over the Brazilian yet was finished by ground strikes in the second-round, propelled by a carefully placed calf-kick. Regardless, our focus today is much more focused on officiating than the actual judging.

Taiyilake Nueraji defeats Kiefer Crosbie

• Rd. 1 KO/TKO (Elbows) 

Every time we witness a knee to a grounded opponent, controversy strikes and fans are quick to judge and analyze. Taiyilake Nueraji, a large favorite against Kiefer Crosbie was dominating the fight, hurting him with strikes, and largely cruising to a finish in the first round. At around the midway point, we see Crosbie in a grounded position fall victim to a vicious knee from Nueraji. 

Immediately, Mark Goddard stops the fight and sends both fighters to their corners. Crosbie is quickly examined by Goddard and a doctor and is cleared to return after under a minute. Goddard takes away 2 Points from Nueraji, and the action resumes and Crosbie is finished moments later. Obviously, Crosbie is compromised, with a bad cut and blood covering his eye. Now that we know what happened, was this conducted correctly? 

Well, when we see illegal moves like these happen in the octagon, the process is in fact quite simple. If there is an intentional injury, as was the case with the knee, the referee automatically stops the fight. So far, Goddard is on the mark. At this point, there is a 5 Minute Break for the fighter to recover and be seen by the Doctor. If the Doctor deems the fighter as able to continue, he can return. Again, Crosbie verbalizes and symbolizes he is ready to return, without taking his entire 5 Minutes. Goddard correctly takes away 2-Points from Nueraji and the Fight Continues. 

Goddard isn’t allowed to declare a fight a DQ if the fighter wishes to continue. He is only allowed to declare a fight a DQ if a fighter commits an infraction with malice, not necessarily intent. Malice refers to someone eye gouging, biting, kicking someone on the groin purposefully. Essentially, it means acting in bad faith towards the other fighter. We’ve seen this, for example between Andre Lima and Igor Severino, where Severino lost by DQ for biting. 

Now, was Goddard completely perfect? Not quite. He did follow protocol, did ask Crosbie if he wanted to continue, though personally, should had let Crosbie take the entirety of the 5 minutes before resuming the fight. People have a right to be upset, though they should have been upset at Crosbie’s corner, who fully sane and able to communicate, should have told their fighter to either refrain from continuing or to take the entire 5 Minutes to Recover. 

If the corner had communicated with Crosbie, perhaps we’d seen a different outcome. Goddard, while controversial, followed the correct protocol, from stopping the fight, bringing in the Doctor and taking two points away. 

Herb Dean’s Timidity Warning on Aljamain Sterling

Aljamain Sterling’s dominant victory over Brian Ortega was a solid masterclass display over 5 Rounds. Sterling stayed away from his usual grappling heavy approach and instead utilized some of his hidden striking to overwhelm Ortega, who had a tough weight cut and usually isn’t a quick starter. 

The former champion dominated the first 4 Rounds, though Ortega began to find some more success towards the end of Round 4 and Start of Round 5. At one point, Ortega began pressuring Sterling and Sterling began backing up, not fighting back and simply avoiding the action. At this point, Referee Herb Dean gives Aljo a warning for Timidity. Timidity is defined by when a fighter avoids combat by running away, faking injuries to stall fights or in general finding solutions not to fight. While Aljo was circling away, I do find that a Timidity warning wasn’t necessary, especially when considering this was part of Ortega’s gameplan, and was at the time, benefiting Ortega to follow his own gameplan. 

If Sterling had persisted with this throughout the fight, a warning could have been a good call, though in this instance, Dean was a bit too quick with his judgement. Luckily, it had little impact on the outcome of the fight, as Sterling was able to win 50-45 on all scorecards. 

Was Johnny Walker’s Victory over Zhang Mingyang a Late Stoppage?

Referee Mark Goddard made his second appearance in this week’s controversy report, though this time for the Main Event. As Walker landed a sequence of leg kicks on Zhang, the Chinese Light-Heavyweight went down, looking to defend himself. What came after was almost a minute straight of ground and pound leading to Goddard calling the fight off. 

Walker lands the last calf kick on Zhang around 3:09 of the clock. He follows Zhang to the floor with a flurry of ground and pound, though survives, scrambles and is welcomed again by a flurry of heavy ground and pound shots. This whole novel repeats itself until 2:23 on the clock, when Mark Goddard has seen enough. These were multiple, failed, opportunities to recover for almost 50 seconds. 

46 Seconds of Straight Ground and Pound is excessive, especially when it’s Johnny Walker on top of you. Granted, Zhang was doing his best to scramble, though was doing nothing to stand back up or fight back. In all honesty, Goddard could had stopped this fight a tad earlier. Of course, we will see controversies, believing Mark Goddard was brought out by the Chinese Government. While these may be fake, it is quite frustrating to see fights go for longer than they should, especially when we’ve seen fights stopped for far less before, and by the very same person. 

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