Drew Dober believes his UFC Mexico City fight should’ve been stopped earlier: “I was no longer there”

Drew Dober thinks his UFC Mexico City fight against Manuel Torres should have been stopped earlier.

Dober was dropped and was hanging onto Torres’ leg while Torres was landing down hammerfists shots. On the broadcast, the commentators called for the fight to be stopped, but the referee let Dober take several unnecessary punches.

Now, after getting a chance to watch the fight, Dober says the fight should have stopped the fight it after the first couple of hammerfists as he was no longer there.

“If you watch, technically when you want to finish the takedown, you want your grip above your opponent’s knee,” Dober said to MMAFighting. “I was shooting for a takedown and after the first or second hammer fist, you see my grip just drop below his knee to like a low single. I don’t ever do that takedown so that was not a productive movement. So if you want to rewatch that film, the moment my grip goes below his knee, that was when the fight should have been stopped… The reason I was hanging onto his leg is because I was no longer there. It was a good stoppage. My willingness to fight just transcends my mind…

“For my health, I think it could have been stopped earlier but I don’t cast blame on the referee because he’s trying to do his job,” Dober said. “He told me in the locker room that he knows the way I fight. He knows the damage I can take. He’s going to give me every opportunity to improve my position. Really the person to blame for the later stoppage is the fact that my body just kept fighting regardless of my mind being absent.”

Ultimately, the ref stopped the fight 1:45 into the fight, which was Dober’s third-straight defeat.

Drew Dober is taking time off to heal after UFC Mexico City

After the loss to Manuel Torres at UFC Mexico City, Drew Dober says he will be taking time off to heal.

Dober knows he took some necessary damage in the fight, so he says he wants to make sure he’s 100% healthy.

“I will take time off. I’m about to see a neurologist on Friday about the status of my head. I’m wearing these blue-light glasses. I just got done doing a hyperbaric chamber. I’m doing everything I possibly can to make sure that my brain heals correctly and properly before I get back in the frame,” Dober said. “As far as my health goes, I feel fine. We’re just going to try to make sure that we don’t do anymore additional damage in training.”

Drew Dober is now 27-15 and one NC as a pro and coming off back-to-back knockout losses. Dober has now been knocked out four times.