Luke Riley is thrilled with his UFC 329 win, no matter what anyone else has to say about it.
Controversy immediately arose Saturday following Riley’s first-round knockout of Kai Kamaka III after referee Kerry Hatley stepped in for the stoppage with Kamaka being battered against the cage, but still on his feet. Pros criticized the call on social media and cageside commentator Joe Rogan also questioned Hatley’s decision.
At the evening’s post-fight presser, Riley was told that Rogan didn’t agree with the stoppage and he responded to that statement and online critics.
“He didn’t?” Riley said. “They’ve f*cking lost their minds. Honestly, two more seconds, [Kamaka] would have been face down on the canvas. That’s baffled me a bit, that one. I don’t really know what to say to that.
“If you think that was sort of an early stoppage, then I feel like you shouldn’t be watching fighting, but it is what it is.”
Regardless of the controversy, it was another knockout win for the undefeated Riley, who has finished 10 of his 14 fights via strikes. After earning a unanimous decision over Michael Aswell in his previous fight, Riley was thrilled to leave it out of the hands of the judges and remind fans how dangerous his standup game can be.
“Even now, people have underestimated my power very, very much,” Riley said. “You don’t understand how hard. I know for a fact I am the hardest-hitting person in this division, 1,000,000 percent.
“Look, my last fight, maybe the co-main played into the fact that I went in a bit too tense, too stiff. This time I just came in loose, was in the moment, and knew if I touch someone on the chin, it’s like I said in the cage, ‘Bedtime,’ and yeah, that’s all she wrote.”
For Kamaka, this was just the third knockout loss of his 27-fight career and the first time he succumbed to strikes since a previous UFC stint in 2020. Though Kamaka was not dropped by Riley’s strikes, he appeared to be visibly dazed even after Hatley stepped in for the save.
From Riley’s perspective, the situation was only going to get worse for Kamaka had the fight continued.
“He was just a wounded animal trying to stay alive and he was going to be put down if the ref didn’t stop the fight,” Riley said. “So yeah, the ref done a very, very good job or he would have been down, out, face-down on the canvas, which wouldn’t have been a good look, would it?”
