Yes, it was a premature stoppage. In no way was that a TKO. While not defending his face, Ben was placing himself in a better position.
However, Ben was getting his ass kicked and would have most likely continued getting his ass kicked for another 9 minutes had the fight not been stopped. Ben should be glad that now he has an excuse for the loss and he can use it to promote himself for his next fight. Maybe he can redeem himself.
Still, it was a horrible stoppage. A fighter like Rothwell can clearly take some punishment, and deserves to be able to prove his durability in the cage.
I thik it was a bad point in the fight to stop it but i dont think it was an early stoppage.
Ben can say that he would have done this, or done that IF the fight kept going but the fact is that he was unable to stop Cain from pounding his face in for the entire first round. The ref's can not see in to the future. They cant see that maybe Ben would have pulled a Kimura and submit Cain or dropped a bomb to knock him out. Mazagatti can only go on what happened, first round domination by Cain, and what was occuring. Not a bad call by Steve in my opinion.
I hear what you're saying, but a fighter always has a "puncher's chance". Especially a powerful striker like Rothwell. You can say the same for submissions. Watch the Minatauro vs. Sylvia fight. He was getting blasted by Timmy over and over again, but all he needed was one good position to change the outcome of the fight. While I agree that most likely Cain would have dominated the rest of the fight, you can not simply project what the rest of the fight will be like and call it prematurely. It was an unfair stoppage. Simple as that.
If we are going to call fights based on the ref's predictions, A. Silva would never step into the cage and Fedor would never have to leave Russia...
Ben is an idiot. Steve went over in between the rounds and warned him " I cannot let you take hits like that DEFEND yourself." Cain was punishing him and you have to defend yourslf.
Yeah it was an early stoppage.
But I don't think Rothwell would've been able to do anything different in the next few seconds after standing, because if you look right before Mazzagatti steps in & Rothwell just gets to his feet you can see Cain go for another leg to take him down again.
That would've happened & Rothwell would've gotten pounded more.
But I agree someone like Rothwell needs an actual heavy hitter to ring his bell.
And lets face it, so far Cain has not shown that he has knock out power.
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HW: Fedor, Carwin, Big Nog, Kongo.
LH: Lyoto, Mousasi, Sobral, Griffin, Evans, J. Jones, Hamill.
MW: A. Silva, Marquardt.
WW: GSP, Koscheck, Fitch, McCrory.
LW: Sanchez, T. Griffin, Florian.
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Couture for Life!!!
(I might bet against you sometimes, but I never want to see you lose).
He wasn't saving him from punches, he was saving him from further embarrassment.
You got that right! Rothwell got schooled, to bad he can't face facts. He has 1 more fight in my opinion before he gets cut, Rothwell vs. Roy Nelson!
Then win or lose both guys should get cut for being to full of themselves.
Fighters safety has to be taken into account. Ben Rothwell was getting badly, badly dominated. He can say he was "just warming up", but getting slammed over and over while your face is getting pummeled is his idea of warming up, then he needs to find a better method.
With the logic that "he could come back and win the fight" as a defense for it being an early stoppage, I mean I think they have to draw the line somewhere. We have refs step in to save fighters who do not tap to submissions, and they step in when a fighter is taking many unanswered punches. With the logic that a guy can always come back, they should just abolish TKO's altogether and force guys to get beaten till they tap out, get knocked out, or die, and I don't think MMA would go very far building an image off of that. Ben hardly even defended himself in the fight, he basically just ate punch after punch while trying to stand up, then getting scooped up and slammed again. It was an extremely one sided fight, and I think the ref made the right call in ending it before Ben got badly hurt.
This was no early. Alot of people are forgetting that Ben took a beating in he first round. And Steve warned him numerous time during the fight to defend himself. Then in between rounds he went to Ben and warned him he would stop the fight if he kept taking punishment like that. Then Ben took 6 undefended punches to the face. He didnt start moving up until the fourth or fifth shot to the face. The rules sate you must intelligently defend yourself at all times.
Ben, answer me this. In what way is taking 6 punches to the face with your hands down intelligently defending yourself?
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Jeffrey "The Destroyer" Pigeon
Wins: 1 Loses:0 Draws: 0
I am a staunch supporter that Machida is still undefeated.
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