In a bout that was looked forward to for its potential for high action, the referee spoiled the bout overall, ending what was a close fight, one round shy of its finale.
Brandon Rios and Diego Chaves were in the midst of a rough and physical bout with just one round left in the scheduled 10-round affair, when referee Vic Drakulich put a halt to the action in a bout that he never had control of.
Taking points away from Chaves in the third and eighth round for holding and one point from Rios in fifth for rough tactics, Drakulich slowly but surely let the fighters get out of hand early, and took away the first point from Chaves without much warning beforehand.
The bout saw each fighter land significant blows and depending on whom you asked in press row, either fighter could have been ahead when the fight was stopped.
After a clench in the beginning of Round 9 Chaves wrestled Rios to the canvas, in a move that belonged in an MMA match, but surprisingly, no point was taken after the takedown.
Then, at the 1:50 mark of Round 9 the two fighters clenched yet again, and after Chaves put Rios in a headlock and took a prolonged time to let go of Rios’ arms, Drakulich stopped the bout in a situation that didn’t seem warranted for a stoppage, especially after the takedown maneuver earlier in the round.
Rios said the fight was stopped for Chaves poking him in the eye, but even at the post fight presser no one gave a concrete answer to why the fight was stopped, besides the fact it was repeated fouls on Chaves’ end.
All Bob Bennett of the Nevada Athletic Commission said about the stoppage after a third foul was that “If it (a foul) is intentional you can be disqualified.”
The official scores from the three judges were 75-74 Chaves (x2) and 75-75 so it is obvious that the scores of the ninth and the 10th and final round could of played a crucial role in the outcome of the close bout.
In the post-fight interview on HBO, Rios told Jim Lampley, he wasn’t sure who was ahead in the bout, but wasn’t amused by the rough tactics of Chaves.
“He kept punching and he kept poking me in the eye. That’s not right. This is not the way I want to win,” Rios said. “I don’t know if I would win or not. But I didn’t want the fight to end this way. If you want to fight, fight, but don’t fight dirty.”
At the post-fight presser almost everyone, including Top Rank CEO, Bob Arum, were confused with the outcome of the fight.
“I have no thoughts [on the fight]. I don’t know what the f—k happened,” Arum said.
Bennet thought, despite what everyone saw in the ring that Drakulich did a good job trying to take control of the bout.
“Vic did what he could do. He really made an effort to take control of the fight,” Bennett said. Bennett went on to say that Drakulich said that the fight was the toughest to ref in his entire career.
Chaves was understandably upset with the outcome and claimed he wasn’t intentionally trying to poke Rios in the eye.
“It was a clench and he was under my arm, but I wanted to be free, and I never wanted to put anything in his face.
Despite all of the controversy surrounding the finish Rios was awarded the win and now has some possible big fights lined up for his next outing.
Arum mentioned there would be no Chaves rematch and a third go-round with Mike Alvarado, a bout with Timothy Bradley and what would be a surefire knockout fight against Ruslan Provodnikov all as possible opponents for Rios next.
Toward the end of the press conference one of Chaves’ handlers compared the ref’s over involvement on the fight to traditional sports like soccer and basketball, where refs are meant to be seen and not heard in the outcome of a match.
With that reference Arum ran with the World Cup mania that took over the world over the summer and ended the presser on a light note.
“This is the first big fight after the World Cup and the refs gave Chaves a red card,” Arum joked.
