The whole point of the ref stopping the fight is for 2 reasons ONLY, for the fighters SAFETY and if the fighter taps. Are you trying to say Vera’s safety was in danger, because he sure as hell didn’t tap. The way Vera sprang up (UNHARMED) after the stoppage, without as much as a scratch one would have to be an idiot to say that was a legit stoppage.Watch the slow motion replay, those stikes didn’t do SHIT and they were block by Vera’s gloves. It IS the refs job to LISTEN to the fighter , when he says he is “OK”(over and over again). Give me a break, don’t even try to justify that refs incompetance, he’s an idiot that should go back to bouncing at a bar,were fights are supposed to be stopped,as soon as they start.

amen!! These premature stop are getting out of hand. this reminds me of the many early stops during Elite XC main stream fight on CBS. It seamed everytime I fighter got in a little trouble the ref would stop the fight. This is not fair to the athletes that work day and night for their fights nor to the dedicated paying fans….

I’ve never been to a UFC event, but I’m pretty sure there are clocks visible from the ring around the arena. I’ve read about fighters peeking at the fight broadcast on the Jumbotron to see the time. The referee should be able to glance at a clock somewhere and see if a guy is going to take punishment for a few seconds or a few minutes and then act accordingly.

you can often hear the ref telling fighters to work in the final 30 seconds and the ref often tells the fighters for example “30 seconds keep working” the ref is very much aware of the time its part of the job and if he isnt, he shouldnt be a ref.

I think what your talking about is the 10 sec mark where they make a noise. I know fighters look up at the clock, but if the Ref did that, then he’s not watching whats going on in the fight. I guess there probably aware of the time, but all that is besides the point. Vera should not have put himself in that position.

Jimmy - The refs do, in fact, recite the time remaining, and it is not uncommon at all. Big John used to do it all the time, especially if you look back at fights a few years ago (say three years ago or so). Maybe it went out of fashion, but they know how much time is left in a match. Though, obviously, that is not their primary concern.

Sorry, I was replying to JV not Jimmy.

But my point is that Vera shouldnt have left himself in that position anyways.

Don’t forget, the cornermen call out the remaining time throughout each round to their fighters. Surely the ref can hear it as well.

they dont have a sound when you have 10 seconds left, thats in boxing

Anomaly: Hell Yeah, I was nervous. Not to mention I am a big Vera fan. I hate betting against fighters I like, but money is money, so I go with who I feel will win.

I am a big fan of Brandon Vera, but he is doing himself a diservice by not cutting down to 205 lbs. Look What happened to Bisping…He was average fighting at 205, he cut down to 185 and now he is an animal…l.I think the same would happen for Brandon when he takes his lazy ass in a Sauna. The only thing is the Heavyweight divisaion kind of needs him. However he has to get back to winning. He cant help the division on a loosing streak/

I agree losing def wont help him haha, but like GORD said down there, the perfect line, all that fight proved up to that point was that it was gonna be a GOOD fight.

But that is my point right there, it was a good, even fight, Werdum’s mount won him the round in my opinion, but it was still a bomb fight, Vera went with a top HW who in my opinion, (and i KNOW yours as well) is next up for a title shot, one of the few consistant top 10, probably 5 HW’s that the UFC has. That, is why I do not believe that Vera cannot succeed in the HW division, he is much earlier in his career than the top HW he just fought, and he did very very well.

And like you said, the HW division needs everything it can get.

That is the point I was making to my friends. IT is ok for Kimbo to assure the ref. that he is ok after 2 minutes of elbows, but Verra assures the ref he is ok for 15 seconds is not. MArgliotta is a terrible ref. He isnot consistent in his fight calling. In the Kimbo fight he stood up Thompson and Kimbo, while Thompson was in half guard. He does not allow Verra to dirty box off the cage. In the clench he kept seperating them. What gives with that? Since when is Dirty Boxing/fighting out of the clench not part of the fight?

The Ref in all timed sports are completely aware of the time. It is part of their job. They need to be aware of the time. They need to know. Especially when it comes down to those last 20 to 30 seonds, since they need to prepare to get themselves in to a position to seperate the fighters when the bell rings. Marglioti just is just a super shitty ref, PERIOD!

Absolutely! This fight was going to be a war! I am happy I won money on Werdum, but I am pissed off that the dumb ass ref jipped us out of a War!

I think Vera can succeed at Heavyweight. However, I think he would be a MONSTER at LHW! LHW division is the best in the world, so he is more needed at heavyweight….I just hope that he gets back to his winning ways.

Vera should fight Hardonk next….. 2 heavyweight kickboxers. Vera should be able to get back on track!

Vera curled up into a ball in the fetal position, thats not intelligently defending himself. He was mounted for 15 seconds and did absolutely nothing about it.

Sure Brandon was in the fetal position. But how can you call that “not defending yourself”? He wasn’t getting hit. Please tell me when Werdum was actually successful at landing damaging shots that hurt Brandon.

ye he did he landed about 5 and even if the hit the gloves they still hurt

yea sure “stoppage due to strikes to the gloves” WTF is that? c’mon now.

Vera was getting owned, he curled up. IMO curling up in the fetal position is the same as tapping out, your giving up.

See for yourself.

http://i29.tinypic.com/33onzgo.jpg

Ragnarr, great little .gif. It shows Brandon clearly not suffering any damage to Werdums shots. Sure he wasn’t striking back. But again, he was defending himself how he should be while Werdum was trying to GNP. There was 15 seconds left and that was the smart thing to do. Miragliotta let Kimbo get GNP’d for 1 full minute and didn’t stop the fight. Remember that.

“ye he did he landed about 5 and even if the hit the gloves they still hurt”

LOL

If shots are hitting the gloves, they are being BLOCKED. Are we gonna start scoring points for blocked strikes now? Idiot.

To shamo84: The rules state that you must be intelligently defending yourself. Covering up in a fetal position is not! Regardless of whether you are hurt or not or how much time is left. He was mounted and he did not do anything to improve his position. Big John had stopped fights for that reason, you have to at least attempt to improve your position especially if you are mounted. Watch Kenny vs Lauzon. Lauzon did not just curl up, he made several attempts to improve his position (shrimping, bucking, back door escapes). That is why that fight went on for longer, it wasn’t until Lauzon stopped that the fight was called. Vera didn’t try any escape, the stoppage was his fault.

You can’t compare Kflo and Jlo with this fight. Lauzon was suffering significant damage in Florian’s mount. So for the saftey of Lauzon, the fight was justly stopped. Brandon was clearly safe at the time and would have let the clock run out and went for the second round. How can you stop a fight where no damage was inflicted? Even if Brandon was covering up, why wasn’t Werdum doing any damage? C’mon man you’re loosing your futile argument.

Here is the bottom line anyway, intelligently defending yourself from mount, what was Vera doing wrong? Blocking shots, and bucking and squirming when you have a chance, without sustaining any damage and keeping his composure, anyone got a better idea?

That my friend, is intelligently defending yourself.

ye putting a glove in front of your head wont stop the full force of the blow ye it doesnt hurt as much as a clean shot but your head is still bouncing off the ground and your being rattled on top of that he still landed a few shots to the face! vera is a whining bitch he bitched when he lost to sylvia and he bitched about the werdum fight! 20 seconds to land blows man he would have been stopped! ye he was ok when he got up but give werdum 20 seconds to hit you he will hurt you

Have you ever taken any BJJ? Vera was not reacting properly to being in the mount, he was not bucking or shrimping, he never tried to lock his arms behind Werdums back or escape through the back door. All he did was cover up and go fetal, that warrants a stoppage. Your argument about him taking no damage may be true because he was covering up, but you are still ignoring the fact that he was turning away from his attacker into a fetal position. Turning away from your attacker is not a smart way to defend yourself.

Rangarr, in a street fight yes. It’s not a smart thing to do. But the fact that Vera knew he can last in Werdums mount for the remaining seconds was the smart thing to do. Why waste the energy when he didn’t have to?

You said it Anomaly, to a tee.

Ah, the heat, did you notice that the little hammer fists (love tapps), were starting to come. Watch some MMA and you will see when a guy is getting tired, the haymakers turn into hammer fists. Vera was out of danger and he avoided the haymakers (if you can even call them that),so he did the smartest thing he could do near the end of the round. Since when is it smart to stop blocking until the punches stop coming. Werdum never let up for a second, but it is VERY tiring throwing punches like that and the hammer fists weren’t going to KO Vera in the few seconds that were left.

You guys saying that very cant block the full force of the punches with his gloves, yeah so what!! Never said he could, but he was doing the only thing anybody could have done, given that they were mounted. You say he wasnt squirming or shrimping, I disagree, he DEFINENTLY was not laying still like an soldiar at attention. He was doing everything he could do(with a sound mind) with a bigger top ten HW expert in BJJ mounted on him. ANd his health was not jeopordized at all.