Rosenthal explains...

Why people who thought it should be stopped are armchair idiots who aren't in the cage hearing and seeing what's going on and should shut up and let him do his job. Okay, maybe not exactly that, but he did explain why he let them fight on...

"In the days since Brock Lesnar came back from being absolutely brutalized in the first round of his fight with Shane Carwin to winning the fight in the second, some have questioned whether referee Josh Rosenthal should have ever permitted the fight to get out of the first round, or whether Rosenthal should have stopped the fight and given Carwin a first-round technical knockout win.

I think Rosenthal made the right call, and his explanation of his own work in the fight pretty well demonstrates that he did what referees are supposed to do in such situations: He made sure the fighter was intelligently defending himself and allowed the fight to continue.

"He took some hard shots when they were against the fence," Rosenthal said of Lesnar on ESPN's MMA Live. "He was looking for a way out. He was blocking some punches. At one point he tried to spin to push Shane away and took a couple shots. And then again, went for a deep half guard position and took a couple more shots. When he curled up after that is when I commanded him to fight back, which at that point he did, and then he went for feet on the hips to push Carwin away and was able to get to his knees. He pretty much ran with it. He heard -- he responded to my commands."

Watching the first round live as it happened, plenty of fans thought Carwin was about to knock Lesnar out cold. But re-watching the fight, you see that Rosenthal had it exactly right: Lesnar was spinning, using his feet to push Carwin away, and blocking punches with his arms. Carwin was obviously dominating the first round (it was a clear 10-8 round and it's a surprise that one judge scored it 10-9), but Lesnar was intelligently defending himself right up to the point where he got back to his feet with 1:05 left in the round."

http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/07/09/ref-josh-rosenthal-explains-why-he-didnt-stop-lesnar-carwin/


The only part I disagree with is Brock intelligently defending himself. He was following the refs instructions, but there was very little evidence of intellgence or defense in there...

yeah if you call curling up like a bitch (tito) intelligently defending yourself. Any ways good job on the refs part it was a HW title fight and you have to let it ride a little bit longer than usual to be extra sure.

Brock said he heard him and got scared that the fight may get stopped so he pushed Carwin away. He said Rosenthal would give him 3 chances if he was in trouble. The same was said to Carwin by Rosenthal before the fight. I still say Brock had good defense for the most part. Carwin didn't land as many strikes as what was said unless you count strikes to the arms.

Using your arms to block is as old as time, it does not prove cowardice or stupidity. In fact it is commonly used in boxing.

I agree with Andrew. Fleeing for your life across the cage does though.