Dana White was critical of referee Kerry Hatley’s performance in Saturday’s UFC Austin co-main event fight between Jalin Turner and Bobby Green.

Hatley was resoundingly critcised on social media by both fans and fighters after allowing Turner to land a series of unanswered, undefended blows to Green after he had been knocked down in the first round of their fight, with UFC commentator Daniel Cormier stating that the officiating was some of the worst he’d ever witness in mixed martial arts.

And White clearly agreed with this appraisal. Speaking to the media post-fight, including The Mac Life, the UFC CEO was also extremely critical of Hatley’s stoppage — but stopped short of going in too deep after saying that Hatley had admitted his error backstage.

“The difference is we’ve had some refs say some dumb sh*t in the past like, ‘Oh, I allowed her to be a warrior tonight,’ and goofy sh*t like that,” said White. “He knows that he made a mistake tonight and he does not feel good about it. So it’s unfortunate.”

Summing it up, though, White said: “Definitely a bad stoppage. Very bad.”

In his own comments to the media, as noted by MMA Fighting, Turner was reluctant to be too critical of the officiating and said that Green deserved an opportunity to attempt to reverse the position.

“I don’t know, bro. I don’t know what to call it,” Turner said post-fight. “He just waited until Bobby was out. Like, Bobby’s tough. Bobby’s a really tough fighter, so when I was punching, he was defending, he was moving, he was still a bit coherent and I was like, dang.

“I was like, maybe this should be stopped, maybe not, and I’m not going to stop until you pull me off because it’s him or me, and he would’ve gotten his bearings about him, he could’ve gotten back on top or something crazy. So it is what it is. He was healthy, he was coherent, he was good after, we had good words, so I’m happy he was in good health, decent health.”

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