A report from MMA Fighting has an Association of Boxing Commissions MMA referee trainer on record saying that the referee from Saturday’s UFC 208 main event may not have erred in not docking Germaine de Randamie a point for strikes thrown at Holly Holm after the horn sounded to end the second and third rounds.
In speaking to Marc Raimondi, referee and trainer Rob Hinds shared that it is the referee, not the bell or horn, that indicates to fighters that the round is over. “When the bell sounds, whenever that happens, that’s just our indication to stop the round,” he said. “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.”
This means that since Anderson didn’t appear to physically or verbally intervene before de Randamie threw those parting shots, that she wasn’t at fault and shouldn’t have been penalized. Anderson did not warn her after the first instance, but did after happened again at the end of the third round.
Hinds did raise the question of whether Anderson could have stepped in sooner or if he was fully prepared for the end of the round. “Could he have closed the distance better?” he said. “Possibly. Did he have that countdown from ten 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.’”
While de Randamie’s actions at the time looked to be against the rules, they may actually have been within the letter of the law, but not likely within the spirit of it.
Hiscoe’s Analysis: The insight from Rob Hinds is helpful in understanding why Todd Anderson was reluctant to warn or punish de Randamie for the shots after the horn. It does seem that this rule could be abused, though, if fighters chose to take it most literally that the ref is the one to stop the fight and not the horn. We could see fights continue on for several seconds and fighters will have the out to say they were waiting for the ref to step in or that they didn’t hear him or her. I don’t anticipate it being a big problem, but the potential is there. This is why consistent rules and officiating are important in mixed martial arts.
On that note, this information even further brings into question Herb Dean’s actions during the Jorge Masvidal-Donald Cerrone fight last month. You may remember that Masvidal appeared to have Cerrone finished at the end of the first round and referee Herb Dean looked to be waving the fight off a split second before the horn went off. He went on to say that he was signaling for the end of the round, and the fight continued. Now, if the horn is meant as a signal to the referee that he or she is to end the round, then that sequence becomes even more puzzling. Dean likely made the decision in the moment to let the fight continue since it was so close to the horn, but based on what Rob Hinds is telling us, it was the wrong call. Fortunately for Masvidal, it didn’t change the outcome of the fight, but Cerrone did have to face further punishment in order to get there.
MONDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-Michel Quinones vs. Alexander Volkanovski is off of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night from Halifax due to an injury suffered by Quinones. (SOURCE)
–Combate is reporting the Claudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz is in the works. Gadelha and Kowalkiewicz are the last two women to unsuccessfully challenge champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
-Former “Ultimate Fighter” Season 6 competitor Daniel Barrera, has been charged with making threats towards B.J. Penn and Penn’s brother, J. Barrera made the threats while being held at the Hawaii Community Correctional Center on unrelated charges. (SOURCE)
NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: SUNDAY NEWS DIGEST 2/12: Puzzling refereeing and scoring make disappointing UFC 208 event worse, White agrees (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)
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