UFC 116 Results: Referee Josh Rosenthal Also Puts on Performance of a Lifetime

I think that the referees did a great job in both matches. Both fighters were still defending from the bottom, and neither fighter from top landed cleanly enough times to warrant a stoppage.

I agreed with both non-stoppages.

I think the Cyborg fight should have been stopped earlier, despite Finney’s ability to survive simply because she was legit getting thrashed to a pulp. Finney would eat three, four shots in a row before getting into a position to block or roll out of harm’s way. For all the damage Brock was taking, it was only coming in around one, occasionally two at a time before he put up his defenses again, usually in the form of a very tight cover up, but also a couple of kickouts.

Not that I disagree with the way the ref actually handled the Finney beating: the ref said to defend herself and she did a legitimate job of showing that she was indeed not unconscious or not intelligently defending herself but was still lucid. Refs can’t break the rules just because we’d like them to or we “all know” how it will end.

So yea, while I would have liked to have seen the Finney fight end earlier, part of that is that we know how that ended, and it wasn’t with Cuddles getting her arm raised after the most spectacular comeback upset ever, but with her taking even more of a beating. Had Carwin won, we may look at it in the same light, but either way, both refs did their jobs the way they’re supposed to – let the fighters decide the fights.

Well, he made a pretty bad error in the WEC show a couple weeks ago in the Varner/Shalorus fight, for starters.

to save a fighter who won’t tap from having his arm torn off.

when 75% of the punches hit your gloves and arms.

Dana?

I love Rosenthal though. I know many wanted the Torres v Bowles fight stopped early but I like the champion getting the benefit of doubt even if he doesn’t know he has it(!). Same case scenario.

Really? Didn’t Brock end the round pushing Carwin back against the cage? Its not like he was saved from getting murdered by the bell.

“That fight should have been stopped based on Brock’s fetal posturing alone.”

Try again.

…is taking some punishment to set up the later parts of the rounds. Brock knew there was no way he could get up at the point in which he went fetal. He knew his best course of action was to defend, stay conscious and come back with a good takedown and get the win.

I’m with you when a fighter fetals up with their face on the matt and presents only the back of their head consistenly after being rocked; but not a fighter that covers boxer style and is just taking most of the hits to his forearms.

Taking hits to forearms instead of face = pretty intelligent defense in my book.

And he kept moving and trying things from there as well. Push offs with hands and legs and eventually even escaped and got back to his feet himself.

true enough, some ref’s would have stopped a fight like that; and that’s why Rosenthal deserves praise. For doing the job right. We shouldn’t expect un-needed stoppages just b/c the standards of reffing have been lowers by bad jobs of others.

I agree completely. But, Lesnar showed his fear by running, covering up without technique and falling to the cage in a fetal position. Still, he won the fight and the ref did make the right call.

Could that be, I don’t know, maybe Brock trying to recover from being rocked??? Did you think of that. Some people get rocked and fall down. Some people get rocked and back away. Some people get rocked and keep getting punched and do whatever they can to stay in the fight. Brock did what he had to to recover. I have no problem with a fighter retreating to get his head straight.

It’s not fear. It’s not wanting to lose. If he feared getting hit, I would suppose he picked the wrong line of work a long time ago.

But in all seriousness, Josh made the right call.

Brock was covering up and inbetween the bursts of punches from Carwin, I am guessing Josh saw in Brock’s eyes that he wasnt really out or rocked. He was def in trouble but he was doing all the right things by moving and covering up and not taking any clean shots that could have put him out. He got hit a couple times but he never went limp or stopped intelligently defending himself.

The fans and the fighters (and their gameplans) shouldn’t expect un-needed stoppages just b/c the standards of reffing have been lowered by the bad reffing jobs of others.

All I saw last night was the ref taking away Carwin’s entire gameplan.

Perhaps Carwin’s gameplan should have included hitting Lesnar hard enough that he couldn’t intelligently defend himself then since that’s when referees are supposed to stop the fight.