Yet, some people are still "hurt".

I just found a very interesting article written by respected Sam Caplan in one of his CBSSport interviews and posted in FiveOuncesOfPain.com. This is an interview to "highly respected" former MMA referee. Not only he seem to openly agree with the stoppage but he also gives a pretty wide and clear explanation on an MMA rule that seem to be confusing even for hard-core MMA fans.

And here is how it goes:

The question that Sam Caplan formulated was:

Q: I wanted to delve into that show some more. First, I wanted to ask about the Scott Smith vs. Robbie Lawler fight. Smith took a thumb to the eye and the fight was declared a no contest. He was not given five minutes to recover from the foul. Was that the correct call?

The answer by McCarthy:

The correct call was that they stopped the fight because

Scott Smith said "I can't see."

And any doctor -- and I don't care who they are -- you can look at the New Jersey doctor, they're no different than any other doctor; there's no doctor that is going to allow a fighter to go back out and fight when he says he can't see.

The explanation of the 5 minutes rule, by McCarthy:

The misconception is this: within the unified rules, when we talk about fouls and time to recover from the fouls, the rules and the way they are worded are not clear to people. It says you have up to five minutes to recover from a foul. But truthfully, it doesn't cover all fouls like that. The five minutes for them to recover from the foul is determined upon a couple of things: if there is a low blow; if they get hit with a groin shot and they go down and the referee brings the doctor in and the doctor says he can continue, at the one-minute mark the doctor says the fighter can continue.

The fighter, on his own, has the ability to say "I need more time" and has up to five minutes to recover and re-engage in the fight. He has that five-minute rule and he has control of it. If it's at three minutes and he says he needs more time, the referee cannot make him start off in the fight. He has control of the time (but) that is the only time within the rules when the fighter has control of the time.

The other times, when you're taking a look at something like with Scott Smith and what happened when he took a finger in the eye, the referee stops the fight, goes to the doctor and has the doctor look at Scott Smith. If Scott Smith didn't say "I can't see" and the doctor wants to take up to five minutes to give him time to recover, then the doctor can do that. But if the doctor said "He can continue" and it was at the two minute mark and Scott Smith says "I need more time, my eye is blurry," the referee doesn't have the ability to give Scott Smith that time. Scott Smith doesn't have the right to have that time.

Once the doctor, in regards to a foul such as an illegal elbow, or an illegal knee, or a finger to the eye, once the doctor says the fighter can continue then the referee needs to go and re-start the fight. The fighter cannot say "I'm not ready yet." And that's the way the rules are. Given that, because of the fact that Scott Smith said "I can't see," there's no doctor in New Jersey, California, Nevada, Ohio -- I don't care where, they're all going to say

"That's it; you say you can't see. There's no more fight;

I'm not going to put a blind person out there."

One last thought?

Humbly I appreciate the stoppage. The fight was televised to mainstream. The MMA world was highly concerned whether mainstream America was ready for MMA and whether it was going to be accepted that night or criticized. Happilly or not, the stoppage showed them that MMA does take care of it's fighters and it's not a wild and barbaric "show" that some people are trying to call sport. It showed them that MMA has rules, it's organized, and it protect the fighters. It showed that the fighters are athletes and also are human... And this is while I'll say in my next little blog...

Respectfully and humbly,

Ale

(excerpt from article:McCarthy talks officiating faux pas June 12, 2008 | By Sam Caplan | Special to CBSSports.com - posted in FiveOuncesOfPain.com)

Alejandra Armas

http://adiamondsoul.proelite.com

http://www.manifestingsuccess.com