Dana White has a problem with a referee stoppage for the second time in the three-card old 2019.

At UFC 234, Jim Crute showed no signs of a sophomore slump when he ran through Sam Alvey for the first round TKO, but that victory came with its share of protest, first from Alvey, who was anything but smiling in the aftermath of the bout, but instead was complaining about the stoppage to the referee Marc Goddard. And in addition to Alvey, UFC president Dana White also took issue with the stoppage.

Prior to the stoppage, Jim Crute had landed a heavy shot that dropped Alvey, and Crute would walk off temporarily, erroneously believing that the fight was over. Alvey was able to recover, make it back up to his feet, and survive until, ultimately, Crute would land a series of unanswered strikes to a downed Sam Alvey. But according to both Alvey and Dana White, Alvey was down, but not out of the fight:

“I think he looked damn good, and especially against a really tough guy,” White said at the UFC 234 post-fight conference. “I think there’s only been three people that have ever finished him out of 40-something fights. I didn’t agree with the stoppage – I thought it was a bad stoppage.

“A lot of those shots were hitting him on the arm. He was obviously hurt. But the fight could have gone a little longer and we could have seen a little more of Crute. Bad stoppage in my opinion.”


With this victory, Jimmy “The Brute” Crute improves his record to 10-0, and his UFC record to 2-0. As for Sam Alvey, he has now lost two straight fights.