Petr Yan vs Jose Aldo at UFC 251 ended in devastating fashion for the latter, who was struck with a spine-chilling elbow which left him pouring with blood from his nose, causing Joe Rogan to almost look away and shout for the fight to be stopped. 

The bout was heavily anticipated, and it somewhat lived up to the hype until Yan landed a devastating elbow which stopped the fight prematurely. 

Fight Island on the whole featured some controversial decisions and bad stoppages, prompting UFC president Dana White to come out and say: “Looks like we’ve got to tighten up our refs and judges here on Fight Island.” 

Max Holloway lost via split decision to Alexander Volkanovski, causing uproar among many UFC fans who felt like the former champion was robbed. 

Another awful decision from that night was not to stop the Aldo fight sooner. 

The Aldo-Yan fight was going swimmingly, with Yan slightly ahead on most of the judges’ scorecards, until the fifth round where Yan landed a crunching elbow which made Aldo bleed badly from his nose. 

Joe Rogan, who was reacting to the fight with a few others, was watching in anguish as Aldo was being pounded repeatedly without the referee intervening. 

Rogan even shouted: “It’s over. He just can’t take it any more. He’s basically just hanging on here. That was a big elbow, look at all the blood, man. F**k. Oh my god, look at his face. Dude, Yan is no joke. Look at him hammering. Stop the fight! Stop the fight!” 

Usually when a fighter is grounded and being hit repeatedly unable to defend themselves, the fight is stopped without hesitation for the safety of the fighter, however, this wasn’t the case in this fight as the referee just let it go on before finally stopping the fight 30 seconds overdue. 

Hinchcliff, one of the other three who was reacting to the fight alongside Rogan, also chipped in: “Obviously Fight Island is not New York City, these are different rules out there. Every time we watch fights in New York it seems like they’re always stopped very quickly. Clearly, Abu Dhabi...

“They don’t give a f**k,” Joey Diaz said. “They’re not stopping ‘til an eye comes out.”

Hinchcliff even went on to joke: “That referee had five bucks on Aldo.”

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Despite Aldo being visibly stable after the fight, had the bout been allowed to go on any longer than it already had, he could have been seriously injured, however, some will argue that is the nature of the sport. 

The win for Yan meant he earned the vacant bantamweight title. 

What’s next for Aldo is currently unclear, however, many fans agree that a bout against Dominick Cruz would be a fight that fans would want to see.