Joe Rogan, Daniel Cormier criticize referee in Uros Medic's drawn-out TKO at UFC 259

Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier were not pleased with referee Mark Smith’s work in the second bout of the night at UFC 259.

Lightweight Uros Medic (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) earned a lopsided victory over Aalon Cruz (8-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC) in their fight Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The TKO came at the 1:40 mark of Round 1, but cageside color commentators Rogan and Cormier were vocal in their belief that it should’ve come much sooner.

Medic hurt Cruz in the opening seconds of the contest and relentlessly swarmed. Smith took a close look at stopping it from the first time Cruz went down, but it took a while until he’d seen enough (via Twitter).

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Rogan and Cormier expressed the fight should’ve been stopped, and continued to pile onto that narrative as Cruz tried desperately to move out of the way of incoming blows. Medic landed 48 total significant strikes before Smith stepped in, according to the broadcast, and that didn’t make the commentary team happy.

“That was a lot of unnecessary punishment in my opinion,” Rogan said. “In my opinion and yours.”

Cormier agreed with Rogan’s stance but expressed relief that Cruz didn’t get put out cold before Smith stopped the fight.

“That was much longer than it needed to be,” Cormier said. “Mark is usually one of those (referees) that will give (time). .. It would’ve been bad to see (Cruz) go stiff. I’m glad it didn’t happen. But that was a little scary there.”

For his part, Medic also thought the finish should’ve been handled differently.

“I think it was a late stoppage. I feel bad for him,” Medic said. “I saw him taking the damage, and he wasn’t defending himself properly. A lot of it was landing; he was bleeding a little bit. I thought it could’ve ben stopped sooner. … I hope he’s OK. I hope nothing bad happened.”