A packed-out Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall bore witness to one of the worst stoppages of the year on Friday night.
One week after referee Jason Herzog caught flak for allowing Stephen Nguyen vs Mohammad Yahya to continue at UFC Abu Dhabi despite the latter being dropped six times, PFL official Giovanna Scano has come under fire for her part in a featherweight clash between Frederik Dupras and Nathan Kelly.
The pair met at PFL World Tournament 8 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In the dying embers of the second round, Dupras locked in a standing guillotine choke, which Kelly tapped to almost immediately.
Despite this, Scano missed the tap after moving to the other side of the fighters to get a different view of the submission.
Both men then dropped to the canvas as Kelly went limp while commentators screamed at the referee to stop the fight.
The intervention was eventually made 11 seconds after Kelly first tapped out.
As the fight was waved off, Dupras kicked Kelly off him, resulting in the Irishman banging his head on the canvas as he lay unconscious on his back.
A video of the stoppage quickly made the rounds on social media, and fans didn’t disguise their anger.
One supporter wrote: “Ref doesn’t pay any attention to the unconscious man, just lets the back of his head SLAM on the canvas. You can literally hear it,”
Another tweeted: “Never let her ref a fight again.”
A third posted: “Worst stoppage of the year.”
Meanwhile, somebody else commented: “What the f*** was that ref doing?”
Kelly, who trains at SBG Ireland with Conor McGregor‘s head coach John Kavanagh, falls to 11-4 in defeat, while Dupras improves to 9-2.
It marked the third straight setback for Kelly inside the cage following a 10-fight winning streak.
Elsewhere on the card, Khabib Nurmagomedov protégé Movlid Khaybulaev was crowned the 2025 PFL featherweight tournament winner with a fifth-round submission win over Jesus Pinedo.
Meanwhile, Thad Jean outpointed Logan Storley to win the welterweight tournament.