Should the fight have been waved off earlier?
The debate has raged since the death of Joao Carvalho on Monday night, with some arguing the welterweight bout between Charlie Ward and the Portuguese ought to have been brought to a close long before referee Mariusz Domasat decided to jump in.
Others, however, maintain that the official was simply doing his job in waiting for the defeated fighter to stop intelligently defending himself before waving it off.
UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, who was in attendance at the National Stadium on Saturday night, told MMA Connect TV after the fight that he “thought it could have been stopped a little earlier”.
When it comes to stopping MMA bouts, the third man in the octagon is left to decide when a fighter has taken enough damage and, on first viewing, nobody could have predicted the eventual outcome of the fight-ending blows from Ward.
Joao Carvalho passed away at 9.35pm on Monday night, roughly 48 hours after losing via TKO to the SBG welterweight, and it has caused an explosion of discussion on MMA and the scenarios that lead to fights being called by officials.
Domasat, who was in charge of the bout on Saturday night, brought a stop to proceedings in the third round and he maintains that it was the right time to do so.
“If you watch the fight you see clearly there was no reason to stop the fight earlier,” Domasat told the Irish Daily Star.
“I stopped the fight when there was a reason to stop the fight, when the fighter wasn’t willing to fight anymore, that’s it.
“Everyone who has any idea about MMA knows the fight was stopped at the exact proper time.
“I am an experienced referee and part of the Irish Amateur Pankration Association of Safe MMA and I know what I am doing.”
