[molson]

One of the things I love about MMA is the quirks....the sport is new enough where we haven't figured everything out yet.

Last night, Ben Askren has Robbie Lawler choked out. Lawler's arm actually goes limp and falls to the ground. The ref grab's Lawler's arm, and, from my perspective - actually revived him a bit, and Lawler gave a half-hearted thumbs up. The ref stopped the fight, Lawler jumps out of the submission like he was fine the whole time, everybody is pissed.....I think the refs are in an impossible position here. OF COURSE Lawler is fine immediately after Askren releases the submission hold. That doesn't prove anything. He's OK BECAUSE Askren released the hold. It's like MMA fans and fighters feel that a choke-out submission doesn't count unless the fighter is still unconscious for some period of time after the hold is released. But from what I understand about MMA, being choked unconscious is different than being knocked out with strikes - your lights can go back on pretty much immediately after being choked out, whereas a knockout victim takes some time to gather his wits about him. So when we see a ref stop a fight because they think someone is unconscious, but then the losing fighter is fine immediately afterwards, everybody thinks it was an early stoppage. But I feel bad for the winning fighter who clearly had the fight won, and who only released the hold because the referee made them, and now their win is tainted. Kevin Lee went through the same shit, when all he did was release his choke on Michael Chisea after Chiseas' arm went limp and the ref called the fight off. Maybe they need to go to the pro wrestling rule where the ref has to raise a guy's arm three times and see it drop three times before calling the fight.

(Lawler/Askren was an incredible fight before that - the good news from this controversy is that they are apparently going to run that fight back).

And then the main event. Jon Jones dominates Anthony Smith. But, he also delivers a blatantly illegal knee to the head when Smith is down. Jones can't help but cheat, always. He also failed multiple drug tests coming into this fight, but those don't count anymore for reasons which would require a longer post to explain. Jones is penalized 2 points. Smith is able to continue. But, if Smith played it a little differently, if he feigns being a little more hurt, if he can convince the doctors he can't continue - he actually wins the fight by DQ and is the new Light Heavyweight Champion. So, credit to him I guess, that he refused to win the title that way and chose to continue fighting a far superior opponent, who won the decision easily despite the 2 point deduction.