The UFC 208 main event for the inaugural women’s featherweight title between Germaine de Randamie and Holly Holm was controversial. After both the second and third rounds, de Randamie threw late punches. De Randamie received a warning after the end of Round 3, but did not appear to after Round 2, when the greatest damage appeared to have occurred.

There is a widespread belief that there should have been a point deduction. Further, UFC president Dana White spoke for many when he said New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) referee Todd Anderson was not sufficiently experienced to be reffing a world title bout.

Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting reached out to Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) certified trainer of referees and judges Rob Hinds about what happened. Hinds reminded that according to the rules, fights don’t end when the bell sounds, they end when the referee says to.

There is a 10-second warning clacker. The referee then has to position himself sufficiently close to the fighter, and break the action physically and verbally as the horn sounds.

Once we’ve done that, we’ve intervened and anything after that is punishable, said Hinds.

When the bell sounds, whenever that happens that’s just our indication to stop the round. That’s not the signal for the exact end of the round. We need to make sure we’re in position and everything is in place to stop the action as close to that horn as possible.

With that knowledge, the exchanges take on a greater degree ambiguity. Hinds emphasized that this is a teaching moment, and paid particular notice to the lack of a warning after the first late blows, which makes deducting a point in a world title fight even more problematic.

Could he have closed the distance better? asked Hinds. Possibly. Did he have that countdown from 10 in his head, so he had a pretty decent idea of when that round was coming to an end? Did he get physically involved and verbally involved? Those were some of the pieces that when we look at our performances, we could go, ‘I could have done that a little better.’

If you don’t take care of things as they happen, it steamrolls. Because he didn’t give her a soft warning the first time or address it directly the first time, now that second time, this is a strong warning phase. This is a hard warning.

Hinds detailed the factors in deducting a point for a foul:
•Intent;
•Repeated;
•Damage; and
•Effect on fight.

Hinds was asked if he would have taken a point after Round 3, and acknowledged that he would have, even in the absence of a warning for the first foul.

Hinds also commended Anderson as an experienced, outstanding referee that he would trust seeing in a world title fight.

“It’s one of those things that happens that any of us can make that mistake on any night,” he said.