Apparently that dope of a ref thinks you need to advance position in order to not get stood up.
Tito vs Shamrock fights would have been different with this ref
He literally stopped his hand from throwing another punch so he could stand them up.
Fucking bullshit to insure they protect their new poster boy.
It seemed like the crowd was even booing the standup. 
Ya it was bullshit! He was working from that position. The ref was looking to stand it up the whole time. 
They are trying to push him like he is the next coming of Vitor Belfort.
I'm not buying the hype.
The standup was bs for sure. 100% agree, but say they weren't stood up, realistically what do you see happening?
Does Cody land that KO shot from inside his guard? Maybe, but it didn't look like he was generating a ton of power from the guard.
They were stood up in the first with about a 1:30-2mins left. Sage immediately shoots and takes Cody down easily. Works his way to an arm triangle. If Cody had been submitted there then I would say the whole fight was corrupted by the standup.
But they went to a second round. Sage kept his distance after the second glove touch and was able to use his sprawl and landed a good guillotine.
I don't think the standup changed the course of the fight at all; Cody seemed to be confident and ready at the beginning of the second, and safe caught him legitimately.
that ref mustve been a john 3:16 fan
Honestly I'm on the fence. If you're Chael Sonnen and are unrelentingly active in your opponent's full guard trying to butcher them then yea, it's BS to stand them up. However Pfister was just moderately active if we're being honest. It was somewhat stagnant so I can't complain too much about the standup.
It was awful and completely changed the complexion of the fight.
SnapLocally - He literally stopped his hand from throwing another punch so he could stand them up.So the UFC told the ref to stand them up?
Fucking bullshit to insure they protect their new poster boy.
ryanisagarret summed up my thoughts pretty well. It was a bad call. It changed the fight for sure, but I think the outcome would have been the same.
Elias Cepeda - It was awful and completely changed the complexion of the fight.The second round would have played out the same. It wasn't like if Cody had another 90 seconds on top he would have significantly hurt Sage or gassed Sage out. LOL
disbeliever -Elias Cepeda - It was awful and completely changed the complexion of the fight.
This
Yep. WHo was that ref anyways. I bet we see him more often and possibly with more fuckery, after the favor he did zuffa last night
pathetic
jasperb -In so many words, and in my opinion, yes. He did Sage a favor.SnapLocally - He literally stopped his hand from throwing another punch so he could stand them up.So the UFC told the ref to stand them up?
Fucking bullshit to insure they protect their new poster boy.
Rambo John J -disbeliever -Elias Cepeda - It was awful and completely changed the complexion of the fight.
This
Yep. WHo was that ref anyways. I bet we see him more often and possibly with more fuckery, after the favor he did zuffa last night
pathetic
Disgraceful standup. I was literally cringing when that happened. How can someone be a professional Ref and not understand how the contest works? I mean fundamentally not understand? The answer if he can't. Anyone who believes that was fair or even spontaneous is an idiot. I'm sure that piece of shit got a nice backroom bonus for helping the cause. Fucking pathetic is right.
*if=is
disbeliever -Yep, bad call by the ref.Elias Cepeda - It was awful and completely changed the complexion of the fight.
This
Elias Cepeda - It was awful and completely changed the complexion of the fight.I disagree.
The standup was a horrible decision by the ref. In no way am I saying it was good, ok, justified what have you.
But like my post above, how does the fight play out without the standup?
Cody stays in sages guard and lands punches, but ineffective and not really power filled blows. Could there have been a KO punch? Maybe, I just can't see it happening with the type of GNP Cody was doing.
I rarely come on here and correct people as everyone has a right to their opinion...but if you think we have any control over the refs, you don't understand how it works.
They work for the state...haven’t you guys ever seen Dana stand up and start screaming at them...believe me, they drive us nuts sometimes.as do the judges.
But, I can also tell you I’ve reffed before in the old days and everything you do is instantaneous and it harder then you think.
With that said, the stand up was early, and i leaned over to one of the execs and he said the same thing...I agree.
It was early imo. Cody was owning top position, not really dealing significant damage because Sage seemed more inclined to tie him up than hunting subs because he couldn't escape. He's just a kid still so I give him a pass. That ref did him no favors by not letting him work for it a little more. He only put another egg in the Zuffa basket.