I take nothing away from Charlie Brenneman’s victory over Rick Story, because he did earn it.
He also received a tiny bit of help from the hometown referee.
For good portions of rounds one and two (the two rounds Brenneman won) Brenneman was working from inside of Rick Story’s Guard.
It was the prototypical example for the argument of whether fights should get stood up or not in certain situations.
Brenneman was moving in such a manner that you could call him “active”, but he was not really able to inflict any damage or trying to advance position.
The referee decided to let him ride out that position for the rest of those two rounds, thus securing those rounds for him.
Now that is pretty much all fine and dandy, by itself. If the referee wants to see the two men work on the ground, then he is the one to make that call.
Unfortunately for Story, the viewers and the sport, the referee contradicted himself in the third round with a horrible stand-up in a situation that clearly benefited Charlie Brenneman.
Once again, the fight had hit the ground, but this time Rick Story was high on top of Brenneman’s back and was working for a kimura.
Many within the fight community consider the guard position “neutral.” Nobody in their right mind would consider the position that Story had Brenneman in, “neutral.”
Story threatening with the kimura submission before the standup was way more threatening than anything Brenneman ever did inside of his guard—yet the referee completely inexplicably stood them up.
If the referee had not stood them up, there is a good chance that Brenneman would have survived the compromising position on his own and still rode the fight out to the unanimous decision victory.
But to see a referee display such bias towards a fighter is a major problem and should not be overlooked.
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