Matt Schnell was on the wrong end of a brutal knockout punch Saturday night at UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Gaziev. The finish was so wild it earned his opponent Steve Erceg a $50,000 performance bonus … and some less than sensitive comments from referee Chris Tognoni.
Tognoni is a solid referee who has earned his spot in the regular rotation out in Nevada, but he may want to brush up on his post-fight small talk. After Schnell was blasted into another dimension, Tognoni came over for a little friendly chit-chat with the concussed fighter.
“Man, I’m not sure what was worse, the punch or you hitting your head on the canvas, man,” Tognoni said, patting Schnell on the chest. “You’ll see on the film.”
“Did you hear it?” he asked Schnell’s corner, who gave a small nod.
Can we argue with anything Tognoni said? No. He was on the money: the KO sounded bad, and “Danger” hitting the canvas sounded even worse. Should Tognoni have said any of that shit to Matt Schnell and his team? Definitely not. It takes a serious level of desensitization to think that’s the thing to say to someone who just got knocked out.
Let’s give this guy the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was trying to suggest Schnell take it easy because he just took two bad blows to the head? If so, it came out all wrong. Very wrong. Dude sounded like he was cooking Schnell, which is definitely not a good look.
The loss drops Matt Schnell to 1-3 over his last four, while Steve Erceg is now 3-0 in the UFC.