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On This Day Three Years Ago…
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 19, 2019, 11:22 AM]
Headline: VIDEO: MMA Fighter Taps Out, Gets TKO Victory Anyway
Author: Cole Shelton
Many MMA fans and fighters often complain about judges and refs. But, in a local promotion, we may have just seen one of the worst ref blunders.
According to BloodyElbow, the fight happened in November at New England Fights 41: Collision Course. It was a scrap between amateur flyweights. There, Caleb Austin was in a tight submission and appeared to tap. Both he and his opponent stopped fighting like the fight was over.
However, the ref never saw the tap so he told them to keep on going. From there, Austin got his opponent down and laid on heavy ground and pound until he got a TKO win. The video was brought to light by American Top Team coach, Mike Brown.
But, as Brown points out, this is a prime example of why fighters must continue to keep on fighting until the ref pulls you off. Had the fighter done that, he would have earned a submission win instead of a TKO loss.
In the end, it will go down as a total miscall and a total ref blunder as he missed the tap and both fighters even stopped fighting like the fight was over. As they say, protect yourself at all times.