Marc Goddard is getting plenty of credit for how he handled the UFC Vegas 122 main event, and now he's explaining exactly why he took a point from Christian Leroy Duncan during the fight.

According to Sherdog, Goddard said Duncan was warned before the eye poke penalty was issued. Bloody Elbow reported that the veteran referee has received widespread praise for his firm handling of the bout, and MMA Fighting and MiddleEasy both noted that Goddard, in a rare move for a referee, chose to publicly walk through his reasoning for the deduction rather than leave it unaddressed.

The fight itself went the distance in dramatic fashion, with Brendan Allen finishing Duncan via rear naked choke in the fifth round at 2:46. The result moves Allen, ranked fourth at middleweight, further up the contender picture, while Duncan, ranked tenth in the division, takes a tough loss on his record. Our Elo model had Allen at 1610 and Duncan at 1558 heading into the matchup, both numbers built off ten tracked bouts apiece, and the final outcome lines up with that gap.

Duncan didn't dwell on the deduction afterward. Asked about the experience, he told Bloody Elbow he's "thankful for the experiences that carry us forward."

The point deduction has become its own talking point online, with a thread on r/MMA built around Goddard's tweets addressing the call.

For Duncan, the path back at middleweight now runs through proving the stoppage and the deduction were a rough night rather than a trend, while Allen's win keeps him firmly in the mix near the top of a stacked division.