Davis Gifford fight outrage is bizarre

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613MMAfan

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I didn't watch the fights live but I was really curious to watch the Davis Grifford fight after reading that the ref had actually been pulled from the next fight he was supposed to ref and reading all the outrage about the reffing in this fight from fighters,media and former refs. I thought holy shit this must be brutal, the ref must've let Davis damn near kill this guy and wail on Gifford while Gifford wasn't defending himself. When the fight ended I sat staring at my screen absolutely dumbfounded, wondering if perhaps I had suffered a mini seizure during the fight which caused me to miss the part that caused all the outrage. Outside of that, the only rational explanation I can come up with is that people are being influenced by Bispings commentary, the same guy who shamed another fighter for retiring because they were concerned about their long term health and didnt want to take any more damage.

A fight being one sided isnt a criteria for a fight being stopped. I challenge anyone to tell me the exact point in the fight where Davis was lighting Gifford up while Gifford wasn't defending himself and the ref was negligent for not stopping the fight.
 
It's his corners responsibility before it's the ref responsibility.

But seeing as they were negligent as well, I'd say yeah, the ref should've stopped it earlier.
 
I pretty much did the same thing lol. Like, yeah, his corner could have stopped the fight between rounds two and three, but how many coaches actually have the balls to pull their fighter out of the fight?

It wasn't the referee's fault, but it is hilarious that he got pulled and replaced with Herb Dean for a later fight. Herb has had way more atrocious stoppages than this, on both sides of the spectrum.
 
You rarely see fights getting stopped in MMA when the guy is still standing

Boxing you have more of it

But almost never in MMA
 
ThoseAreMyShoes said:
It's his corners responsibility before it's the ref responsibility.

But seeing as they were negligent as well, I'd say yeah, the ref should've stopped it earlier.
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I expect a lot of these responses where people avoid telling me exactly when the fight should've been stopped by the ref, because there wasn't a point during the fight when it clearly should've been stopped. A fight being one sided is not part of the criteria for a fight being stopped.

I completely agree that the corner should've realized there was no point in continuing the fight after the second round, but the ref did absolutely nothing wrong.
 
613MMAfan said:
I didn't watch the fights live but I was really curious to watch the Davis Grifford fight after reading that the ref had actually been pulled from the next fight he was supposed to ref and reading all the outrage about the reffing in this fight from fighters,media and former refs. I thought holy shit this must be brutal, the ref must've let Davis damn near kill this guy and wail on Gifford while Gifford wasn't defending himself. When the fight ended I sat staring at my screen absolutely dumbfounded, wondering if perhaps I had suffered a mini seizure during the fight which caused me to miss the part that caused all the outrage. Outside of that, the only rational explanation I can come up with is that people are being influenced by Bispings commentary, the same guy who shamed another fighter for retiring because they were concerned about their long term health and didnt want to take any more damage.

A fight being one sided isnt a criteria for a fight being stopped. I challenge anyone to tell me the exact point in the fight where Davis was lighting Gifford up while Gifford wasn't defending himself and the ref was negligent for not stopping the fight.
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Yeah. It was a fight where the matchmakers underestimated one fighter and over matched the other. You could've stopped it after about 1.30 knowing where this might go, the difference in talents was so obvious. I don't remember seeing either guy fight before, so I can't say either way weather it was an obvious miss match or weather one guy just brang it better that day.
 
TheRuthlessOne said:
You rarely see fights getting stopped in MMA when the guy is still standing

Boxing you have more of it

But almost never in MMA
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Because boxing has some dignity in there amongst all the violence. MMA is a sport for scum, by scum.
 
corrupted said:
Yeah. It was a fight where the matchmakers underestimated one fighter and over matched the other. You could've stopped it after about 1.30 knowing where this might go, the difference in talents was so obvious. I don't remember seeing either guy fight before, so I can't say either way weather it was an obvious miss match or weather one guy just brang it better that day.
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Is a mismatch or a fight being one sided part of the criteria for stopping a fight? In that case Valentina vs Eye shouldve been stopped the second the fight started, everyone knew what was going to happen.
 
Yeah, I don't agree with the outrage either.

He was getting flogged, sure, but it's not like he was stumbling around on his feet for long parts of the fight just rocked and eating shots over and over. He was pretty much always coming forward and seemed always still in the fight.

Where it gets tricky is precedent, because MMA fights don't get stopped for that sort of thing. If had of been up against the cage eating shots, the ref would've jumped in to call it off, even if he had been covering up. That is really common, but that situation didn't really arise in this fight.

I heard the ref got punished or something for it, which is a complete joke when every other ref would've most likely done the same. If people are so fucking outraged about it, they should appeal to the athletic commissions about it. They assign the refs and its up to them to tell the refs if they're doing it wrong or not. Have them make it so they should be looking to stop fights when someone is getting completely outclassed but not finished or whatever. It's done in kickboxing and boxing all the time.
 
So you think the AC were listening to Bispings commentary and didn't come to the decision to pull him on their own?
That's a bit of a logic fail as it makes no sense at all. Bispings commentary has nothing to do with the decision to pull him from his next fight so what does that leave then? The AC clearly saw something wrong.
If you want a point where it could have been stopped then either of the times where he was dropped by a low kick in the 3rd.

I found it all a bit bizarre as I couldn't see any MMA ref calling the fight before he face planted into the canvas. If Herb had refereed it the fight ends in exactly the same way.
 
Congo66 said:
So you think the AC were listening to Bispings commentary and didn't come to the decision to pull him on their own?
That's a bit of a logic fail as it makes no sense at all. Bispings commentary has nothing to do with the decision to pull him from his next fight so what does that leave then? The AC clearly saw something wrong.
If you want a point where it could have been stopped then either of the times where he was dropped by a low kick in the 3rd.

I found it all a bit bizarre as I couldn't see any MMA ref calling the fight before he face planted into the canvas. If Herb had refereed it the fight ends in exactly the same way.
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If you have been following MMA for awhile I don't see why you would think that the ACs are run by such competent and intelligent people that they would be above being influenced by the commentary of a former UFC champ.

Regardless of what the AC did, I'm convinced that fans and media were influenced by Bispings commentary because the outrage makes absolutely no sense.

I'm not even sure how to respond to the rest because you seem to be agreeing with me, I can't imagine any other ref stopping a fight because a fighter got dropped by a leg kick.
 
613MMAfan said:
I didn't watch the fights live but I was really curious to watch the Davis Grifford fight after reading that the ref had actually been pulled from the next fight he was supposed to ref and reading all the outrage about the reffing in this fight from fighters,media and former refs. I thought holy shit this must be brutal, the ref must've let Davis damn near kill this guy and wail on Gifford while Gifford wasn't defending himself. When the fight ended I sat staring at my screen absolutely dumbfounded, wondering if perhaps I had suffered a mini seizure during the fight which caused me to miss the part that caused all the outrage. Outside of that, the only rational explanation I can come up with is that people are being influenced by Bispings commentary, the same guy who shamed another fighter for retiring because they were concerned about their long term health and didnt want to take any more damage.

A fight being one sided isnt a criteria for a fight being stopped. I challenge anyone to tell me the exact point in the fight where Davis was lighting Gifford up while Gifford wasn't defending himself and the ref was negligent for not stopping the fight.
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people always do that when commentaters say anything. did you see riddle vs melarchy. that was a fight that could have been stopped. with zero outrage
 
Also, the people who were outraged by this fight would have a goddamn anyerisym if they ever watched Sakuraba/Smirnovas.
 
I think people watching live just react much more emotionally to these kind of fights than when rewatching the fight later. I didn't watch the fight either but watched it on the next day, and I was also surprised for the amount of shit the ref got.
 
You don't understand. Just because he took a prolonged ass whooping doesn't mean it was ok, it meant he was too tough for his own good. He took knockout blows in the beginning of the fight but that's a testament to his chin.

The second round and beyond it was clear there was no fight. Sure Thomas was throwing submission attempts but he was also becoming more faded. After a while it was clear for anyone with half a brain he could no longer compete. He would either lose a lopsided decision with way too much time being punched or get KOed violently. It sort of reminded me of Nunes vs Pennington. He took way too much damage. When you're young and you can survive a lot that doesn't make it okay
 
ThoseAreMyShoes said:
It's his corners responsibility before it's the ref responsibility.

But seeing as they were negligent as well, I'd say yeah, the ref should've stopped it earlier.
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Honestly I think this fight is less some individual display of incompetence and more an example of the problem with MMA culture as a whole.

Corners pulling a fighter out of a match or ref's stopping a prolonged one sided match that doesn't have a near finish is something that's never happened much in the UFC. Too much is put in the fighters hands IMHO when their very often not in the best frame of mind to make those kinds of choices.

A change probably does need to happen but I think scapegoating this ref is probably going to result in that not happening.
 
There were several points in which the referee could have stopped that mismatch in the second & third rounds. Gifford took far too much punishment in that fight & there was no need for him to be face-planted before the ref called it. The referee, the commission, the UFC & most of all Gifford's corner ( not to mention the fighter himself ) are very fortunate that they didn't have occur what took place in a boxing match in Chicago at roughly the same time when Patrick Day was knocked out. He lapsed into a coma & required emergency brain surgery for the injuries he suffered. He remains in critical condition as I write this.
Do you enjoy the UFC & MMA? Because if you really do you'll be thankful that the same thing didn't happen to Gifford. Because an injury like Day's or a death to a fighter would seriously damage the sport in the public's eye & once again bring out the politicians looking to ban something.
 
CroCopsLHK said:
You don't understand. Just because he took a prolonged ass whooping doesn't mean it was ok, it meant he was too tough for his own good. He took knockout blows in the beginning of the fight but that's a testament to his chin.

The second round and beyond it was clear there was no fight. Sure Thomas was throwing submission attempts but he was also becoming more faded. After a while it was clear for anyone with half a brain he could no longer compete. He would either lose a lopsided decision with way too much time being punched or get KOed violently. It sort of reminded me of Nunes vs Pennington. He took way too much damage. When you're young and you can survive a lot that doesn't make it okay
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When have you ever seen a ref step in and stop a fight because a fight was one sided, even though the fighter wasn't out on his feet and was still defending himself? If you think a new precedent or standard for stopping a fight should be adopted then that's a conversation we can have, but operating under the current standards the ref did absolutely nothing wrong.
 
Honestly did the same thing, thought that the guy must have been beaten like CB Dollaway then told to stand up and dragged to his corner btween rounds, and was expecting a broken mess. Dude wasn't that hurt after the whole fight just outclassed. I'd even say Gifford landed his best shots in the 3rd.

Hell I think Michelle and kron both took worse damage while being almost as equally outclassed and no one gives a fuck. I sure I've seen a 100 other worse beating too that we just say of that guys tuff fighting till the end.
 
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