Ref Josh Rosenthal Explains Why He Didn’t Stop Lesnar-Carwin

Filed under: UFCIn the days since Brock Lesnar came back from being absolutely brutalized in the first round of his fight with Shane Carwin to winning the fight in the second, some have questioned whether referee Josh Rosenthal should have ever permitt…

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In the days since Brock Lesnar came back from being absolutely brutalized in the first round of his fight with Shane Carwin to winning the fight in the second, some have questioned whether referee Josh Rosenthal should have ever permitted the fight to get out of the first round, or whether Rosenthal should have stopped the fight and given Carwin a first-round technical knockout win.

I think Rosenthal made the right call, and his explanation of his own work in the fight pretty well demonstrates that he did what referees are supposed to do in such situations: He made sure the fighter was intelligently defending himself and allowed the fight to continue.