Fights are fun but beatings are ugly. At UFC on ESPN+ 19 on 10/12 in Tampa, Florida, the valiant Thomas Gifford was beaten badly for every minute of every round by Mike Davis. Rounds 1 and 2 were doubtless 10-8, and Round 3 would likely have been a 10-7, had Gifford not been stopped via KO with just 15 seconds left in the contest.
Countless onlookers were aghast, including commentator Michael Bisping.
“Listen, I’m going to say something controversial here, I think this referee needs to man up,” said ‘The Count’ during Round 3. “He needs to step in and do his job if I’m honest. The referee’s job is to protect the fighter and right now it’s one way traffic. This isn’t a fight. I’m sorry.”
The Florida State Boxing Commission pulled referee Andrew Glenn from his next and final scheduled bout, Niko Price vs. James Vick, replacing him with Herb Dean.
Now the Father of MMA Referees, John McCarthy, breaks down what went wrong.
The referee involved in it is from Florida, he’s not one of the traveling referees that there are and you know that this is his big moment, said McCarthy as transcribed by Farah Hanoun for MMA Junkie. He gets to work a UFC and this is what he’s been dreaming of and now he’s in this position that he goes man this guy is taking a lot of shots, I can’t stop this fight because I don’t want people to boo me. I don’t want to upset people, I don’t know what to do. So what do we do when we don’t know what to do? Nothing.
Would have I done it differently? Yes. I can guarantee you the fight never would have seen the third round, it probably would have been stopped long before that and I’m going to get him out in a certain way because there’s things as a referee you’re supposed to consider. First off, what’s the best for the fighter? Well in this situation, I’ve got a guy, can he win on the cards? I know just watching the fight, you’ve lost both rounds 10-8, there’s no way to win on the cards, ok, you can’t come back from that. So you have a puncher’s chance. NEGATIVE. You are throwing powder puffs because you have been beat on so badly he has crushed your vehicle. It’s a pile of crap bouncing down the road now. Do you have a submitter’s chance? Nope. Every time you try to grab him and take him to the ground he’s sat there and beaten on you and he’s gotten up.
“You’ve proved to me you don’t have a way of winning this fight. So the best thing for me to do for you is let me get you out of there without taking any more damage. And I’m going to let you come back and do this again later on. … You can only give so much before that shiny diamond becomes a crushed rock that just doesn’t sparkle anymore, and that’s everybody.
Most corners will not throw the towel because many times the fighter goes you didn’t believe in me, you thought I couldn’t come back. And then they go somewhere else.”
McCarthy, who has retired from refereeing and now serves as a commentator for Bellator MMA, also identified the purse structure in use at the event as a contributing factor in not stopping the fight. With equal show-win amounts, stopping the fight cuts the fighter’s income in half. By contrast, Bellator, as is standard in boxing, characteristically pays fighters a flat fee to fight, regardless of outcome.
“This is one of the things I love about Bellator, Bellator doesn’t have a win bonus, said McCarthy. Here’s your rate, this is what you get, win or lose, they’re going to get that. They come out, they have a bad performance, you get it. You come out and have a great performance, you get it.
You know what you’re making because every fighter, wherever the UFC goes, you ask the fighters, how much are you making for this fight, oh I’m making $60,000, you’re making $60,000? yeah 30 to show and 30 to win. You haven’t fought yet, you have already mentally spent that $60,000. It’s gone, they know they’re making that extra 30, now that doesn’t always happen.
McCarthy also lauded corners who understand these truths, and are quicker to stop the fight, pointing to the great, great John Hackleman as a sterling example.
