There ia a stigma in fighting where fans, fighters and coaches want to see, or encourage a fighter go out on his shield, then complain when the referee doesn’t stop a fight fast enough.
And there is no problem with having heart, because the whole make up of a fighter is heart. The organ that pumps life into us and is the drving force for fighters. Not that fighters are not intelligent and don’t use their brains, but they ARE taking a lot of headshots. I kid.
And in any other sport where the player has a visible injured limb, they are taken off the pitch, field, court or whichever it may be. Nobody is running around limping in any of these sports. Why in the cage?
MMA community seems to think it is only the referees job to stop a fight when a fighter is visibly injured or taking a lot of head damage, and tend to look at it as “weak” if the towel is thrown in by the corner.
But it’s not. It is for fighter safety in one of the most dangerous sports in the world. This seems to be forgotten.
It seems the fact that throwing in the towel resulted in what WAS a technical disqualifying foul for the corner of the fighter. But now, as of the 2017 unified rules, it is at the discretion of the commission, for the fighters corner to have the option to “retire” their fighter.
Also, the commission, if a towel is seen as a distraction, has the option of offering “coloured” towels.
So I wonder why it is a sight rare to be seen in the MMA promotions?
Not that this has not happened, because in 2013 if you watched close when Nate Diaz was fighting Josh Thomson, his brother Nick, threw in the towel just as the referee was stopping the fight. This was right after Nate received a headkick that dropped him.
Also this year in February, when Derek Brunson fought Jared Cannonier, his corner threw the towel in. But just as in 2013, this was done as the referee stepped in to stop the fight, when Cannonier was delivering the final elbow.
These both being damage to the head, and situations where the damage was accumulated, which is serious, but in the case of Phil Hawes, it seemed like his knee. Which is important, obviously not as much as your brain, but if you were missing one, you’d notice.
Here is an excerpt from part of the rules for throwing in the towel
“A corner person having worked alongside a fighter may recognize and accept what their fighter’s capabilities are from past experience. It makes sense from a safety perspective to allow a corner to retire the fighter.”
It would seem that he could not plant his feet and even throw a punch after Roman Dolidze damaged his knee in that leglock. Restricting the fighters capabilities and possibly causing further damage putting weight on it.
I am not here to take from Dolidze either, he inflicted that damage fairly, and then ended the bout with a vicious KO. He deserves to own this win and enjoy it.