Gavin Tucker releases statement following ugly beatdown at UFC 215, absolves referee

Gavin Tucker’s lopsided loss to Rick Glenn at UFC 215 on Saturday left a lot of those watching upset that he was allowed to continue despite looking like he was badly hurt in the third round.

The third man in the cage was referee Kyle Cardinal, and while he received heavy criticism on social media for not calling off the bout and saving Tucker from further punishment, the fighter himself is refusing to lay any blame on Cardinal.

On Monday, Tucker released a statement on situation in which he absolved Cardinal for allowing the fight to continue:

“I lost on Saturday,” Tucker wrote. “Stop blaming the ref for a bad call. That man let me go out on my shield. He visited while I was in the hospital and apologized. (It) was him and I in that cage. I didn’t stop fighting. He saw that. He should sleep easy.”

The 31-year-old featherweight also goes on to list numerous injuries sustained in the fight, including fractures to his jaw and orbitals.

Though Tucker never appeared to lose consciousness, he was dominated so thoroughly in the final frame that one of the judges awarded Glenn a rare 10-7 round. Glenn would go on to win by scores of 30-24, 30-25, and 29-27.

Cardinal did not officiate any other fights that evening.

UFC 215 was hosted at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta and the event was overseen by the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission. The ECSC has recently come under a considerable amount of scrutiny over the death of former UFC heavyweight Tim Hague, who died this past June after being knocked out in a boxing match.