Referee actions questioned in Lawal vs. Griggs match
Lashley utilized his wrestling and top control for much of the first two rounds, keeping Griggs on his back while…
Lashley utilized his wrestling and top control for much of the first two rounds, keeping Griggs on his back while trying to improve his position and keep control.
But Griggs managed to get back to his feet on a few occasions, forcing Lashley to expend more energy trying to get him back to the ground. On one of those subsequent takedown attempts, Griggs tagged Lashley with an uppercut that opened a bad cut under his left eye that continued bleeding the rest of the way.
The fight took a turn on Lashley in the second round. While in the mount, but not staying extremely active, referee Jon Schorle inexplicably called for a stand up. But there was some confusion in the moment as Schorle then had doctor’s check on Lashley’s cut. He then restarted them standing rather than in the advantageous position that Lashley held.
An exhausted Lashley lunged for a takedown, but Griggs held him off and unleashed a torrent of punches, many of which appeared to land to the back of Lashley’s head, until the round ended. But though he survived to the end of the round, Lashley was battered and couldn’t make it back to his feet immediately, causing Schorle to stop the fight.
Referee Jon Schorle did such a terrible job in this fight. A fight can’t be stood up from the mount like that. Lashley was exhausted, but if a guy is mounted on top of his opponent, it’s up to the fighter on the ground to get out of that position. The fact that it wasn’t restarted on the ground if he was just having the cut checked is unacceptable.
And, had Lashley been able to ride out the round, there’s always a possibility he would have been able to recover enough with the minute in between rounds to complete another takedown. On top of that, a number of the punches Griggs was throwing were landing to the back of Lashley’s head, which directly led to that stoppage at the end of the round.