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In a terrible display of refereeing in MMA, a Brazilian amateur fighter was knocked out twice before the fight was stopped. This incident is being widely regarded as one of the worst stoppages in the history of the sport.
The incident took place during an amateur MMA bout between Jessian Lucas and Michael Douglas in Brazil under the Copa Thunder de MMA Amador promotion. During the fight, referee Kleber Lopes miserably failed to ensure the safety of fighters by making one of the most bizarre stoppages in MMA history.
Utter madness ensued in an amateur MMA match in Brazil
As depicted in the video above, Lucas landed a vicious head kick just 11 seconds into the first round which knocked Douglas out. Now, with a fighter knocked out cold, it is expected that the referee will step in and end the fight, preventing further damage to the fighter. However, this referee seemed to be lost in his own world.
It was clearly visible that Douglas was out cold and his opponent Lucas kept telling the referee that he did not want to punch Douglas anymore. However, the referee shockingly allowed the fight to go on and that forced Lucas to land some nasty ground and pound on a defenseless and visibly groggy opponent.
Instead of ending the fight there, the referee took another bizarre decision by calling for a timeout. Both fighters were then asked to stand back up and after checking Douglas' health, the referee restarted the fight. Lucas then landed another had right which dropped Douglas and that's when the referee finally decided to step in and call an end to the contest.
Anderson Ulysses, the vice-president of CANMMA, who also works with UFC during events in Brazil, spoke about the terrible stoppage in an official statement.
“At 11 seconds of the first round, Michael was knocked out by a high kick to the head and the referee made his first mistake, not interrupting the fight. He committed the second mistake by allowing the athletes, teams, MMA fans, and Thunder Fight for the mistakes committed due to lack of experience of the professionals. We inform that the referees that committed the mistakes were interns who were getting tested and had no experience as referees, but had undergone rule courses previously.” (H/T: BJPENN.com)
Fortunately for Douglas, he managed to come out of the fight without suffering serious damage but he could have suffered some severe and potentially career-ending injuries due to the horrible refereeing in the bout.
