The UFC's top referee explained why he didn't want to officiate Du Plessis' fight with Adesanya

"I specifically asked not to be put in this fight. I didn't want to do that. I worked on their first fight and I thought Adesanya might be fixated on me. I serviced his next fight with Sean Strickland, but in the rematch against Pereira, I didn't want him to think things were repeating themselves. It was his night. I didn't want to go into Izzy's locker room and provoke any negative feelings in him," Goddard said on the OverDogs podcast.