Strikeforce Houston: A very sad day for Athletic Commission in the Great State of Texas
This is a very sad day for me. I am a proud son of Houston and the Great State of Texas. As a graduate of both Baylor University and medical school at the Univ. of Texas, I will die with my boots on but what has been allowed to transpire in Texas is a disgrace...and no I'm not discussing politics.
The refereeing in Texas has been suspect for quite some time. If you question this statement please google "Laurence Cole". He is the son of TDLR director Dick Cole and the ref that was suspended for telling boxer Juan Manuel Lopez to quit after an inadvertent cut because he was ahead in the fight and would win when the score cards were tallied. Please do the search because this is far from his only transgression.
During the KJ Noons v Jorge Gurgel contest, Gurgel was dropped with a devastating hook after the bell and an illegal knee to the head while grounded.
FYI- Jon Jones was disqualified under similar circumstances in a contest against Matt Hamil.
I do not think for one moment that Gurgel was winning the fight but I do believe that the punch in question lead to the demise of the fighter. Gurgel was clearly impaired and most likely suffered a concussion after that blow.
Both blows seemed directly related to the tentative and passive actions or inaction of the referee.
I thought that the night couldn't get much worse but unfortunately it did.
TDLR did not nor does it routinely conduct post-fight drug testing for fighters. What? The third most active state athletic commission does not routinely test fighters on fight night in 2010?
It's time for the Association of Boxing Commissions to step up and provide guidance to the good people at the TDLR.
The refereeing in Texas has been suspect for quite some time. If you question this statement please google "Laurence Cole". He is the son of TDLR director Dick Cole and the ref that was suspended for telling boxer Juan Manuel Lopez to quit after an inadvertent cut because he was ahead in the fight and would win when the score cards were tallied. Please do the search because this is far from his only transgression.
During the KJ Noons v Jorge Gurgel contest, Gurgel was dropped with a devastating hook after the bell and an illegal knee to the head while grounded.
FYI- Jon Jones was disqualified under similar circumstances in a contest against Matt Hamil.
I do not think for one moment that Gurgel was winning the fight but I do believe that the punch in question lead to the demise of the fighter. Gurgel was clearly impaired and most likely suffered a concussion after that blow.
Both blows seemed directly related to the tentative and passive actions or inaction of the referee.
I thought that the night couldn't get much worse but unfortunately it did.
TDLR did not nor does it routinely conduct post-fight drug testing for fighters. What? The third most active state athletic commission does not routinely test fighters on fight night in 2010?
It's time for the Association of Boxing Commissions to step up and provide guidance to the good people at the TDLR.
Posted by Johnny Benjamin MD at 8/22/2010 7:33 AM 
Categories: MMA
Tags: Strikforce Texas Dept. of Labor and Regulations Laurence Cole
Categories: MMA
Tags: Strikforce Texas Dept. of Labor and Regulations Laurence Cole
Bad calls on the part of referees, umpires and judges are nothing new, but nowhere is their impact more important than in combat sports like boxing and MMA. The atrocious officiating in MMA has reached the point were even Dana White has gone on camera and suggested that all referees and cage-side judges take MMA lessons so they know what they are looking for. I can't think of a better idea. In fact, his suggestion is so obvious as to be an embarrassment to the athletic commissions who claim to "regulate" the sport.
Mark my words: We are -- RIGHT NOW -- at the brink of a major change in officiating. Disastrous calls in baseball, football, basketball, soccer, tennis, and MMA (to name only a small fraction of sports affected by the issue) have exposed the limitations of human accuracy...over, and over, and OVER again. Credit the Video Age and improvements in technology. The fact is that there is NO JUSTIFICATION for allowing bad calls to stand when instant replays reveal the truth.
The entire ref/ump/judge union is throwing the weight of their collective (and formidable) power against changing anything, and SHAME ON THEM. There will always be a need for an instant, snap decision in any sport. Lord knows, in MMA we would not want to see someone get killed because if we have to wait for an instant replay to determine the moment when a competitor blacks out from a choke hold (triangle, sleeper, etc.).
Rather than fight all technological advances, the sports officiating union should be looking for more ways to embrace technology as tools to make competitions more fair and safe for competitors and more fun for viewers.
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The matter with the Gurgel-Noons-fight wasn´t that Noons is a dirty fighter, but the ref being a total tool. At the end of the first round he should have stepped in quicker and more determined like you see good referees do in boxing or MMA. The TKO itself was also a lame performance of officiating: After the knockdown he somehow made a half baked step in and irritated Noon´s and insted of stopping the fight like he should he let´s it continue, as if Gurgel would have ever been able to recover from that shot. If would have stepped in like he should, not only it wouldn´t have put the commision on the spot, but also KJ wouldn´t have to face a fight agains´t his newly formed immage as an dirty fighter.
And as far as the drug testing goes, I think anything else than olympic style drug testing is a joke! It is sooooo easy to take steroids as a training "support" but not get cought with it: You just got to get off them early enough before fight night to not get exposed. Everybody who get´s cought with roids was just to stupid to get off ´em early enough or has bad medical consultant´s (so Dr. Benjamin has never been consulted by Sean Sherk I see). As long as their is no olympic style drug testing I don´t even care if they test the fighters on fight night or not!
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I couldn't agree more. Regardless of how the fight was going before the shot, I find it a disgrace that the late punch didn't deduct a point. And why wasn't the ref there waiting when the bell sounded. Most refs are right in the mix at the end of a round, especially when someone is on a late flurry, much like gurgel was. And of course the late stoppage that resulted in the illegal knee that once again no one did anything about.
Now we've got King Mo and KJ Noons taking shots of concentrated oxygen before their fight.
Then the fact that Lashley had a full mount and the ref stopped it for the doc to check the cut on his head, only to restart them standing, resulting in Lashley losing the fight.
God Strikeforce... Brawl in the ring, Fedor the golden boy loses in just over a minute, now this debacle of an event. Wow
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Hey Doc. I've been reading your columns, I usually respond on MMA Junkie.
I actually went back and looked at this fight. Now, maybe the sound and video were off a bit from the video I was watching on. But I didn't see anything wrong with Noons hook after the first bell. I think the blow was fine, maybe the ref was a little slow, but not negligently slow, I think it was just bad timed. Now I'm willing to admit the video I saw it on might have been a bad feed, but I don't think that's the case. I think it was just the case where a punch was on its way in as the bell was about to ring, and it happened to connect.
As far as the knee goes... I agree it was illegal, and probably should have cost KJ the fight. BUT I do not think the fight should have been stopped before that knee. Gurgel CLEARLY goes for a low single takedown, and that if anything is an intelligent defense. He wasn't turtling up, that's just what a low single looks like.
So as far as the ref goes, I won't argue that he is a good ref, if you say he's a bad ref then maybe you're right. But in this instance I don't think he did anything wrong, other than maybe not jumping in quick enough at the end of the first round, but even that's not too terrible of an offense since it he was only off by a split second.
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