Video: Investigation underway as referee dangerously allows choke on visibly unconscious fighter

In this edition of horrible refereeing in regional events, we’re taking a look at an incident during this past weekend’s EFC 88 event in Johannesburg, South Africa. It happened during a fight between debuting flyweight competitors Julio Plaatijies and Teboho Ntene.

As you’ll see in the video below, Plaatijies sunk in the choke at the 3:35 mark of round one. Ntene valiantly fought it off for the next 40 seconds until both of his legs stiffened up.

Nonetheless, the referee allowed the choke to continue for a good 13 seconds before calling a stop to the fight. (HT: Caposa)

It’s this kind of unwise officiating that potentially puts a fighter’s health and safety in peril. Thankfully, South Africa’s MMA Committee will be reviewing the incident.

The Flyweight fight in EFC 88 between Ntene and Plaatijies in which Plaatijies won via RNC in 2 minutes 16 seconds in Round 1 is under review by MMA South Africa.

The various angle footage has been requested from EFC this morning by the Pro Regulatory Commission of the Federation because as with all fights that have an apparent contentious stoppage, both the fighters safety and development of officials is of paramount importance in the sport of MMA

Sadly, such occurrences seem to happen quite often, especially in smaller shows. In November, one of the worst stoppages in MMA happened during an amateur event in Brazil involving referee Kleber Lopes. You’ll see in this video why that is, and fortunately, Lopes was suspended for his irresponsible refereeing.