I just got done watching the fight on the internet (fucking CBS in columbus decided they needed to replay some old telethon bullshit for aids or something, I was pissed) And the reffereeing of that fight was horrendous. unnecessary stand-ups, no warnings for strikes to the back of the head (downward with the point of the elbow), and clearly most important of all, the very premature stoppage in the third round. Thompson had been rocked harder in the second, but by the third everyone knew Fergeson/Slice was only going to win by stoppage so they took a superficial excuse and ran with it. I was so desperate during the fight to know what was going on I actually called my mother who lives in a city where CBS isn’t run by goddamn fucking pussies and had her give me a play by play, and even she, with her non existent martial arts knowledge knew that thompson had won the fight and asked me to explain y that tiny cut stopped the fight when he was clearly still fighting.
now i dont mean to say that the fight was fixed, or that kimbo was predetermined to win. from what i understand the broadcast was filled with premature standups to give the mma illiterates something to gawk at, and I’m sure elite xc had something to do with that, as these refs have not made the same calls when in UFCs cage. I feel like the same thing happened with the kimbo stoppage. people talked through all the build up about how kimbo had an iron jaw and had never been knocked out, so it wasn’t stopped at the end of the second, even though he could not defend himself for over a minute. and [sarcasm/] everyone knows kimbo hits so hard ZOMG HE MADE BO CANTRELL TAP TO STRIKES he can punch through xement[/sarcam] so when kimbo had thompson cut and slightly rocked, well they were onlylooking out for thompsons health right? when even the elite sc apologist ring announcer says that thompson was robbed, i feel pretty certain in saying that elite xc suggested very heavily (i.e. bought) a certain kind of reffereeing for that fight, which made me sad, cause i was hoping Dan Miragliotta would be the next Big John, but its clear that he was just the beginning of an ugly trend of PRIDE like reffereeing (i.e. prefferental treatment for stars) here in the US, which is bullshit