Coach Mark Henry takes blame for Eddie Alvarez’s illegal elbow vs. Dustin Poirier

The turning point in the UFC on FOX 30 main event rematch between Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier was Alvarez’s illegal elbow on Poirier, which combined with other infractions, led to referee Marc Goddard to stand Alvarez up from mount. Poirier would get the TKO win not too long after that sequence.

Observant viewers happened to catch Mark Henry, Alvarez’s longtime coach, seemingly instructing the former Bellator and UFC lightweight champion to throw that strike.

Speaking to MMAjunkie, Henry explained what happened and why he’s putting the blame on himself for Alvarez’s foul.

“He definitely did what he saw me do,” Henry said of Alvarez. “Definitely my fault. I definitely wasn’t meaning to be cheap at all.

“I’m not stupid. I’ve been doing this a long time. I know he can’t do a top elbow. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of fights that I’ve done, every single time they say you can’t do that elbow.”

Henry also had no problem with Goddard’s decision to penalize Alvarez.

“I’ve done a ton fights with (Goddard) as a ref, and if Goddard was in the (cage) again, I’d have 100 percent faith in him,” Henry said. “He’s a great ref.”

While Henry didn’t have an explanation to MMAjunkie for that elbow demonstration, he’s since gone into more detail on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.

With the defeat, Alvarez now has just one win in his last four fights, and the Poirier bout represented the last one of his UFC contract. Now it’s time to see if negotiations will lead to him staying inside the Octagon, or if that thriller with “The Diamond” proved to be his final UFC fight.