Fights are fun but beatings not so much. At UFC Tampa on Saturday, the valiant Thomas Gifford was beaten 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.
Criticism of the officiating was scathing.
“Listen, I’m going to say something controversial here, I think this referee needs to man up,” said commentator Michael Bisping during the fight, as transcribed by Brendan Bradford for Sporting News. “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.”
Then this happened.
https://twitter.com/rafuunka/status/1183167462134763521
“Happy now? That fight could’ve been stopped a long time ago,” shouted Bisping. “Amazing performance from Mike Davis, incredible display. I see this man being a contender. But I did not like to see that knockout. Thomas Gifford is a warrior, he’s got the heart of a lion. Thomas Gifford took them, but you can’t continue to do that. That’s not doing Thomas Gifford any favors. The referee or his coach should have stopped that.”
Twitter reacted:
https://twitter.com/RdosAnjosMMA/status/1183166053309767681https://twitter.com/Grabaka_Hitman/status/1183165273723035648https://twitter.com/MikeMav22/status/1183172167237652480
https://twitter.com/allelbows/status/1183165150993383425
The Florida State Boxing Commission responsibly pulled referee Andrew Glenn from his next and final scheduled bout, Niko Price vs. James Vick, replacing him with Herb Dean.
Now, in an interview with TMZ, Gifford responds.
I really don’t care what they say, said the extraordinary tough fighter, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. They ain’t been training with me, they ain’t been through my life, and they don’t know what goes through my mind, and they don’t know how I’ve been raised. I’ve been there before. I’ve been almost dead in the second round and I’ve come back in the third and just impressed everybody and they was like ‘Whoa, there was no way that guy came back.’ That’s my life story! That’s always happened and my coaches know that. He’s seen me do it in the cage, he’s seen me do it in sparring rounds.
It’s alright. I’m good, everybody knows it. My scans come back fine. I ain’t have no broken bones, I’m walking around. I might be all bruised up and I look horrible but that’ll all turn out. That’ll heal and that’ll all come right back to where I was before the fight even began.
“I want another 13 to 15 years in this sport. I want to be the next Yoel Romero. I want to be the old man kicking everybody’s butt and showing everybody what’s up. Everybody starts off rocky. I think it was Rafael dos Anjos, he lost his first two fights and he became a champion. I mean sure he lost it but he can come back. I mean he’s not that old. He can still do it and so can I.
I’ve watched the video a million times and I don’t care. I went out on my shield. I done exactly what I said I was gonna do. I mean, I might have been rocked at the very first of the fight, I’ve fought through adversity millions of times. This time I didn’t make it. They can doubt me for it all they want, but next time it will be different.
Let’s let the Gifford-quoted RDA have the last word.
