Former UFC lightweight and current fight night analyst Din Thomas retired from coaching during the UFC 330 broadcast last weekend in Philadelphia, but not before burying Gillian Robertson for her performance against Mackenzie Dern in the strawweight co-main event.
Thomas was subsequently skewered by the combat sports community, leading to a public apology as part of the “Deep Waters” podcast on Monday. “Dinyero” also apologized directly to Robertson, who later discovered his attempt to make amends was more for publicity than reconciliation.
“Prior to [Saturday’s broadcast], I didn’t see any sign of what was to be said,” Robertson told Yahoo Sports. “After the broadcast, he said, ‘I will address this in the morning,’ followed by, ‘Going live on [Deep Water’s] in 15 minutes.’ He did reach out to me privately at 5 pm and then sent a voice message apologizing around 7:30 pm, to which I have not responded due to comments he made since the broadcast, privately, to my team that led me to believe there is not much weight in the apology, such as, ‘Me doing that publicly was more so for TV purposes and ratings.’ I don’t think there’s a conversation to be had. I’m good with everything. The people who sign my checks are cool. As for now, I regroup, take some time to heal, and I will be back in the gym as soon as possible on the same mission.”
Consider that bridge officially burned.
Robertson (17-9) snapped a five-fight win streak with her loss to Dern but didn’t lose any ground in the official strawweight rankings. How quickly “Savage” can bounce back and make another run at the division title could depend on how soon former champion Zhang Weili returns to the 115-pound weight class — if she returns at all.
For much more on last weekend’s UFC 330 event click here.