The stoppage of the David Rickels / Saad Awad bout was widely controversial. To everyone surprise, including Rickels’, Awad heavily showcased his wrestling skills, and was winning the fight for over nine and a half minutes. But in the last twenty seconds of the second round, the two engaged in a furious brawling session in which the caveman dropped his Awad at the buzzer. It was a solid punch that landed clean, but Awad seemed to recover quickly, and as he fell to the canvas with his palms flat on the mat with his head held up. This was a clear display of being coherent, and the ref called the end of the round immediately following the buzzer. This is where the situation gets crazy. Awad rolled over on his back, which caused the ref to stop the fight, claiming Awad was unable to stand up. Upon the stoppage, Awad Immediately jumped to his feet to protest, but unfortunately for him, the ref’s decision was final.
Awad’s disappointment was obvious as he walked backstage, and I don’t blame him. Personally, I think the ref just robbed him a chance at $100,000. A good ref would’ve asked a fighter whether of not they can continue, gotten a doctor opinion, or anything before calling a fight just moments after calling the end of a round. If Awad was struggling to get up, or limping, then fans would understand. But he stood right up no problem, making this the fault of the ref. An absolutely horrible call.
When asked at the post fight press conference to go into detail to what had happened, Awad explained that the ref had called a stop to the round, so knowing he had a full minute to recover, he rolled on to his back, and waited for his corner to enter the cage. Moments later, the ref was stopping the fight. Awad stated he doesn’t understand how a ref can call a stop to the round, and then call the fight only a moment later, especially seeing that he was clearly coherent and more than capable of getting to his feet. But despite Awad‘s disappointment, he and Rickels showed nothing but respect for one another. The two even shook hands as the conference was starting, well actually, they pounded fists.
During the conference, Rickels stated that the ref never even said a word to him. He also said that he raised his arms in a victorious manner because he was happy with the fact that he knocked his opponent down just seconds earlier. This lead me to believe that the ref saw Awad on the ground, Rickels with his raising his arms, and decided to stop the fight based on just that. Again, horrible call.
As always, your comments are welcome, positive and negative. That’s right, bring it!
– Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli
@FightFreek