As well, Nick Diaz is nothing but class A fighting. He’s got hands almost like Silva, where he can get them in little holes and right on the button. I really want to see him dedicate a fight to the ground along with stand-up to show his true versatility to the fans that haven’t witnessed it.

I’ve seen worse stoppages for sure. What bothers me is those last two punches. The third last punch should have ended the fight. Just before the second last punch, Denny was “holding his head with one hand as if he had an awful headache”, as KnuckleJammer noted. If you’re lying on your back, inert, with one hand over your eyes, that’s not fighting back.

I was a little too hard on the ref — I think he was just a little bit unsure, a little bit too much of a spectator to what was going on. FWIW, I think the best referee by far is Big John McCarthy. He knows the sport inside out, he respects the fighters, and the guy’s just got an artist’s sense of how a fight’s going. When things begin to go south he hovers up close like a cat and then at the right moment he gets in there decisively and plows the winner off like a linebacker.

Anyway, thanks, Mag, I appreciate your perspective. It’s not an exact science, and hindsight is indeed 20-20

I’ll agree to disagree, but I appreciate your side of the argument.

There have been tens of thousands of fights in MMA history, and hundreds of finishes more brutal than that, but only 1 death. Hell, WAY more people die riding horses in equestrian events. Yes I know there is a ’stigma’ attached to MMA, but I’m afraid if we want the sport to remain like it is, we just have to HOPE that a fighter doesn’t die. Fighting is fighting, it’s a dangerous sport and all fighters know that they risk serious injury doing what they do. The refs do the best job they can between allowing a fighter good chance to recover and deciding if they have had enough. It’s a line ball decision. There is no strict ‘rule’.

Denny’s stoppage may have been a little late yes, but it was hardly severe. And hindsight is a perfect science. At the time, I think Josh’s call was right.

But one thing is we should not change things too much just to become ‘accepted’.

Peace.

KieranMac - Standing 8 counts are FAR more barbaric than what Denny got. You also have NFI or just haven’t been watching the sport very long. I for one have been around since the START. It’s far better to have a stoppage like that than a BS early stoppage ala Vera vs Werdum. Denny will happily fight another day after that. Stop being so melodramatic. Andy made some good points. Josh’s call was spot on. If you didn’t like it, or want it changed - that is how MMA has always been and SHOULD REMAIN. If you don’t like it, watch something else, don’t change the sport.

WAR DIAZ FAMILY

That fight was stopped LATE, and all of you asses that think it’s destroying your “most beloved sport” to stop a fight when a fighter can’t defend himself any longer aren’t fans - you’re barbarians who don’t give a damn about the fighters. If you want organized and televised MMA to gain an interest in this country (which, as I think about it, you probably don’t - you seem the type to think you “own” a sport because you’ve been watching it longer), you’ll acknowledge the fact that a couple of deaths or paralyzed fighters who weren’t protected by the ref is all it would take to cut the rug out from under the sport.

Let me explain it to you more simply: less interest = less sponsorship = less money for the leagues/fighters/venues = fewer leagues and tons of good fighters who go elsewhere to fight or are forced to retire because they can’t get a fight lined up to support their training.

So yeah, by all means, let’s have the refs let the fight go til the fighter is knocked unconscious. Hell, why not just take away tapping out and let them break some arms and choke each other out? They don’t matter, right?