Brendan Schaub Regrets Late Punch Against Mirko Cro Cop

No matter how you look at it, a late punch like the one Brendan Schaub threw last Saturday against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic will always come out looking bad.

Many believe the final punch, after Schaub had seemed to knock out Cro Cop, was unnecessary.

Herb Dean, the referee for the fight, ran over but was just a second too late to stop the final blow that Schaub threw. Schaub now regrets that final blow that many see as unnecessary.

“When people are first telling me, I’m like 'what are they talking about?' I didn’t have any clue, and I asked my coaches, and they’re like 'no, I don’t get it.' I re-watched it and I get what people are saying,” Schaub told MMAWeekly Radio about the final strike in the fight.

Schaub chalks the late blow up to numerous reasons.

“In the heat of the moment, and you’re fighting a guy like Mirko CroCop, when I hit him, I saw him go limp, and he started to get back up. Now that’s not a guy you want to get back up, that guy’s a monster. So, I better get another one in.

"The other thing too, I don’t stop until the ref pulls me off. It’s one of those things you don’t stop until Herb gets in," Schaub said.

Schaub, a former Ultimate Fighter runner-up, has said before that Cro Cop has been his favorite and his inspiration, and that now makes him feel even worse.

“When I saw it in slow motion, I was like ‘aww man’ (because), literally, CroCop’s my favorite,” Schaub said.

Unlike his opponent, Cro Cop, Schaub only suffered a broken nose from an early elbow thrown by Cro Cop that made Schaub bleed profusely throughout the fight. But for now, Schaub lives with some guilt for the late punch. 

“I wish it never happened, I wish Herb had got there faster, so it didn’t happen. I’m not the guy who looks to hurt a guy when he’s down and out like that at all. That is something I wish had never happened,” said Schaub.