“Well, [Silva] hit him with the knee and dropped him, and then he walked off and started to celebrate. He had been dropped, but you know, in MMA we don’t stop the match just because someone gets dropped. I saw that when he fell he was not unconscious. He was facing Anderson. Anderson didn’t give him a threat to protect himself from, but — I don’t want to start playing what if, what if he attacked and whatnot — the bottom line is he didn’t attack. The round ended and, because Anderson was celebrating, there was some confusion as to what was going on. But I never had any confusion. I knew that I hadn’t stopped the match and that the match was going to continue.”
-Referee Herb Dean talks to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour and explains why he didn’t stop Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping after the flying knee from Silva at the end of the third round.
Penick’s Analysis: There’s always a line when it comes to knock downs of that ilk, and whether or not they deserve to force a stoppage, and if Dean was consistent in this regard perhaps it would be less of an issue. This was a flash KO, with Bisping coming to as soon as he hit the ground. He still went out briefly to drop like that in the first place, and quite often we’ve seen those kind of walk off finishes bring an end to things, so Silva was in some ways justified for celebrating. Hell, had he continued throwing strikes we could be talking about a late stoppage from Dean. That’s exactly what happened when Dean let Luke Rockhold continue beating the living hell out of Chris Weidman in their title fight in December. So Dean’s own history in these spots is somewhat questionable. Regardless, it is a judgment call spot, and Silva didn’t continue attacking with Bisping hurt, so that’s in some ways on him.
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No. You are dead wrong. Silva could NOT have continued throwing strikes because the bell sounded as he landed the knee. If Silva didn’t fight such a ridiculously stupid fight then he’d have an argument but the guy was a complete numbskull. He lost that fight more than his opponent won it and he’s only himself to blame for that.