Count Duane Ludwig amongst those who did not hear a bell go off after the first round of Saturday's UFC featherweight title fight.

Jose Aldo (25-1) defended the title a seventh time on Saturday, defeating Chad Mendes (16-2) via unanimous decision at UFC 179 at Maracanazinho Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro.

The five-round fight was one of the best of the year, but included a moment of controversy when Aldo dropped Mendes with a right hand well after the bell went off to end the first round.

At the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White said he hadn't heard the bell, due to the noise of the 11,415 fans in attendance. Referee Marc Goddard echoed that statement, as did Aldo, who said he thought the fight was actually being stopped when Goddard separated him from Mendes. The bell could be heard clearly on the pay-per-view broadcast.

Ludwig, who helped Mendes to his stool after the first round, said he was completely unaware the punches were late until after the fight.

"The crowd was so loud I didn't hear it myself," Ludwig told ESPN.com. "I heard the 10-second clacker and knew the end of the round was close, but I didn't actually hear a bell.

"I found out after the fight during interviews, actually. I heard Dana talking about. He was the one who pointed it out. I was like, 'Wow, there were two punches after the bell.'"

Ludwig said his initial reaction was Goddard should have deducted a point from Aldo, but admitted since no one heard the bell and the referee was late to step in, docking a point would not have been appropriate.

"If you're looking for someone to blame for that, it's the referee," Ludwig said. "He should have been on point, knowing there was only 10 seconds left. There wasn't much action at the 10-second mark, so we all heard that. Once Aldo heard it, I think he started unloading."

White has said the UFC will look into measures to prevent a similar situation in the future. Ludwig said that had a point been taken away, he doesn't feel it would have impacted either fighter's strategy the next four rounds. All three judges scored the bout 49-46 (or four rounds to one) in favor of Aldo.

"It was a close fight," Ludwig said. "Those two punches didn't help. He was almost out from that. He didn't know what corner he was in and was on wobbly legs the whole time in between rounds."

Ludwig said he was worried the judges would be enamored by Aldo's advantage in knockdowns when the fight went to decision, but said overall he didn't have an issue with the outcome.

"I think some judges, if they see a knockdown, they don't care about the rest of the round," he said. "They're going to give it to the guy who got the knockdown. I don't know if the judges were a little in Aldo's favor but it was a close fight. I'm not b------- about the decision.

"Chad was most effective when he was moving his feet and doing what we worked on. When he stood in the pocket and exchanged he did well too, but those were the times when he also got caught. If we would have moved our feet a little more, we might have been ahead on points but I'm not going to tell Chad how to fight every second. If he's in the moment and feel like he needs to do something, he needs to do that."