MMAVu

We could be seeing this soon...

So now, a referee will be able to get a second look at a fight’s end, in order to determine if it was legit or not. Obviously, a fighter or their camp will need to let the ref know that a replay is indeed warranted, but the referee has the sole discretion of choosing whether or not to review the tape.

This rule takes care of several recent controversial stoppages, where a fighter lost because the referee did not see that his opponent was accidentally injured by an illegal strike/move. Two most famous, or infamous, bouts that spring to mind, are Mirko Cro Cop vs Mustapha Al-Turk at UFC 99 and Anthony Johnson vs Kevin Burns at UFN 14.

Last July, Burns and Johnson were trading strikes like two Rock ‘em, Sock ‘em robots, when an errant eye-poke felled Johnson. The referee missed the eye poke, and assumed that an uppercut had sent Johnson crashing to the matt. The NSAC did not overturn the TKO for Burns, due to a lack of a remedy.

A similar thing happened to Mustapha Al-Turk, as he turtled after getting one of the little Mirkos in his eye. Cro Cop poured it on, taking the bout by TKO seconds later. The new rule could take effect in as early as 30 days.

Some interesting tidbits from England’s Fighters Only Magazine:

Fighter of the Year: Anderson Silva. No surprise here as Silva continued his inhuman dominance this year, even dipping his toe up a weight class to 205lbs.

Submission of the Year: Georges St. Pierre on Matt Hughes. This arm bar was set up by a beautiful judo toss, and GSP showed the correct way to apply an arm bar, with great control. Enough pressure to tap out his opponent, but not enough to damage them and take away their livelihood and ability to earn a living…unlike the ultra-reckless Steve Cantwell.

European Fighter of the Year: Michael Bisping. Well, duh. Who else is there? Ross Pointon?

Female Fighter of the Year: Gina Carano. Again, see above. Plus, she’s one of the more attractive female fighters to boot.

Breakthrough Fighter of the Year: Damien Maia. He seems one-dimensional so far. We’ll see how he does against some top shelf competition. Don’t get me wrong, he’s one-dimensional, but that dimension is outstanding.

Knockout of the Year: Wanderlei Silva on Keith Jardine. Yeah. This was like a train wreck…and Jardine’s face was the engine.

Fight of the Year: Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva. A bit over-hyped, but still, a great fight.