Perhaps one of the more overlooked aspects of Anthony Pettis’ one-sided loss to new UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos was an exchange between Pettis and his trainer Duke Roufus at the end of the 4th round. Pettis was undeniably down 4 rounds to 0 and his right eye just about swollen shut. Just before the final round, Pettis told Roufus “he couldn’t see out of his right eye”, Roufus acknowledged it and just continued to pep talk him and give fight strategy before letting him loose for five more minutes of punishment.
No doctor was called in and there wasn’t any consideration of stopping the fight to protect Pettis from any further damage to his right eye.
In an all-new edition of the Bloody Elbow roundtable, we discuss whether or not Roufus should’ve made a call to just stop the fight knowing his fighter directly admitted that he was fighting half-blind. This roundtable is powered by ReplyAll.me, which updates with the staff’s responses in real-time. You can view the new responses by refreshing the page periodically and you can participate in the comments section.
About the author
