Ref discusses DQ for Timidity
“I gave him a warning, I deducted a point, I thought maybe that would make him engage, he didn’t, he kept on, he didn’t want to engage and at that point I really had no choice.”
There are 28 fouls in the Unified Rules of mixed martial arts and the most underutilized is #23:
Timidity (avoiding contact, or consistently dropping the mouthpiece, or faking an injury)
The sport has continuing problems with fighters who Lay N Pray or Wall N Stall – use superior wrestling to shut own the opponent’s striking, while making little effort to finish. Elevating awareness of timidity in the sport could combat that – if a fighter is refusing to engage via holding, then he is showing timidity, and loses the round, despite taking his opponent down.
On Friday, ref Mike Beltran took a nearly unheard of step, and disqualified a fighter for timidity, on the main card of RFA 15. There were just 35 seconds left in the third and final round.
The fighters were featherweights Sam Toomer, a striker from Arena MMA, and Daniel Aguiar a grappler from Black House, with all ten of his wins by way of submission.
Dave Doyle has the story.
Toomer was clearly going to avoid the ground at all costs if he could help it. He got the best of the first round’s limited exchanges and never gave Aguiar an opening to implement his game. By round two, it became clear Aguiar didn’t have much of a Plan B, as he’d stay on the ground when Toomer scored knockdowns, but Toomer wouldn’t bite, as he refused to follow Aguiar to the mat.
In round three, things got ridiculous. Aguiar flopped to the mat at the slightest provocation like a soccer player looking to draw a yellow card. A couple minutes into the round, Beltran issued a warning after a heated conversation.
“I told him he needs to fight and he needs to engage,” said Beltran. “I said he has to fight, that’s what we’re here for. I asked him if he was okay and if he wanted to continue.”
Almost immediately after the restart, Aguiar flopped back to the mat. When the antics continued, Beltran stopped the fight and docked him a point.
Finally, Toomer cracked Aguiar with a leg kick that was solid, but nothing that would end up on a highlight reel. Aguiar hit the mat like he’d been shot. Beltran made one last attempt to get Aguiar to re-engage in the fight, and when Aguiar refused, Beltran waved off the bout.
“I went through the full protocol,” said Beltran. “I gave him a warning, I deducted a point, I thought maybe that would make him engage, he didn’t, he kept on, he didn’t want to engage and at that point I really had no choice but to disqualify him for timidity.”