UFC veteran Sam Alvey got destroyed by Olympic medalist Robelis Despaigne at Karate Combat 58 last weekend in Florida. The second-round finish (see it here) cost the “Smile’n” slugger his heavyweight title
in what amounted to Alvey’s first loss for the striking-only promotion.
But did the former champ suffer unnecessary damage as the result of a late stoppage?
“The referee is taking way too much trash talk from everyone,” Alvey said in a video posted to Instagram. “Before the fight night ever started, the referee came up and introduced himself to us. I told him, I said ‘Listen, this is a title fight, I’m aware I can take a butt kicking. Please let my butt get kicked if it’s going to happen. Don’t stop it early.‘ He didn’t. He let me get finished. He let me go out on my shield. I am proud of him. It is how I think all referees should ref.”
I guess Alvey has been taking notes from this carnage-obsessed former UFC champ.
Most referees operate under the unified rules of MMA, which call for a stoppage when a fighter is no longer intelligently defending themselves, though some officials are willing to give champions a little more leeway. Regardless, fans (and promoters) seem to blow a gasket whenever the action is halted without someone frozen in suspended animation.
There was a lot of that going around last weekend.
“If you look, I blocked his kick, which means I read the kick was coming, I got my hands up and I blocked it,” Alvey continued. “It just also means he kicked through it. Old boy was a big dude. He kicked me round one in the leg and he kicked my leg out from under me. I wasn’t expecting that much pressure to hit and it hit and it was just eye shuttening how much power he had. So please lay off the ref. I think that’s how all refs should ref but he was doing it specifically because I said let me fight to the finish.”
Besides, Alvey doesn’t need the referee to protect him — God has his back!
