The problem isn’t so much that MMA doesn’t have rules, it’s that so many of them seem to be so rarely applied. Much of what happens in the flow of a fight gets limited to a verbal warning as action continues. Occasionally the action will break for a low blow or an eye poke, but just about everything else tends to be more of a ‘guideline’ than a hard and fast regulation.
More broadly, that means that referees have a lot of discretion when it comes to how rules are applied. Did that cage grab warrant a verbal warning? A reset in the center of the cage? A point deduction? At UFC Fight Night: Barboza vs. Lee referee Liam Kerrigan was faced with a much more difficult call, with larger implications.
UFC newcomer Ricky Simon defeated Merab Dvalishvili, officially, at 5:00 of round 3 in their bantamweight contest in Atlantic City. A fight Dvalishvili had largely controlled ended with the final bell and Simon on top, a deep guillotine choke sunk in, Dvalishvili’s face purple and his legs kicking for almost a minute straight.
Somehow he didn’t tap pic.twitter.com/tBk6I2db3u
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) April 22, 2018
When the bell rung and the referee instructed Simon to release the choke, Dvalishvili remained on the mat. And whether he did so due to a lack of consciousness, relief and exhaustion at having survived, or official instruction not to move, it seems that moment cost him everything. The referee ruled that, during the course of the final minute he had been rendered unable to continue, and thus Simon was the winner via TKO.
While he wasn’t in the cage for that particular match, veteran official Marc Goddard was working with the commission on the night and he agrees entirely with the decision that was made. Speaking to MMA Fighting, Goddard gave his view on the stoppage, and why Simon deserved the win.
“I think it was pretty clear at the end of the fight, maybe even before, when the bell sounded, Dvalishvili … he was out,” Goddard said. “He was actually out. And in that instance, it’s like any other instance if you pick up a rear-naked choke or a guillotine. The fact that he drifts into unconsciousness was actually — it should be recorded as a submission, technical submission.”
“There was a bit of confusion, it was loud, and I just wanted to make sure that they weren’t going to go to the scorecards, because that’s the way it looked like it was going to be heading,” Goddard explained. “But the referee Liam Kerrigan, to his credit, when he saw [Dvalishvili] was out, he actually waved it off. And I think there was a little bit of a rush, people thought we were going to try and read the scorecards, so I said, ‘No, no, no. The guy has lost the fight.’ Even though he came around pretty sharp afterwards, he most definitely lost the fight under the ruling and the right guy went away with the win.”
It’s exactly the kind of tough call that commissions are typically willing to leave to the referee’s discretion. When Simon released the submission, if the referee thought that Dvalishvili may have actually been unconscious at the time, he had the power to make that call. And while the commission could potentially overturn it (and it should be expected that Dvalishvili will challenge the ruling) AC’s are notoriously loathe to act against the decision making of their referees.
The question now isn’t so much, will Dvalishvili get a win back, but instead, will the next referee faced with a similar situation make the same call?