Sports

There are many fans of MMA (mixed martial arts) that believe that Saturday night’s fight with Kimbo Slice was fixed. The fight was stopped by the referee Dan Miragliotta during the main event. This gave Slice the win in a fight that many believed he was losing.

The fight was ended 38 seconds into the third round. The scorecards read that Slice was down points to opponent James Thompson by two of the judges. The third judge had split the first two rounds. The fans were not happy about the decision and made this clear all over the Internet.

“Way to go ‘Dirty Dan’ Miragliotta!” read one post on mmajunkie.com. “What were your instructions? If Kimbo doesn’t get knocked out, make sure he wins the fight?” Another added, “This is the beginning of the end of M.M.A.”

The event’s organizers have been quick to defend Miragliotta’s decision. Still, Gary Shaw, president of EliteXC, the group behind Saturday’s fights, acknowledged that in an ideal world, the outcome would have been different. “Obviously, Kimbo would have knocked Thompson out in spectacular fashion,” Shaw said. “But that didn’t happen.”

Slice, with his intimidating physique, his back story and his popularity on the Web, had been at the center of the promotion’s marketing effort. A former college student, bouncer, bodyguard and backyard brawler, Slice became a cult figure in videos of street fights that were widely viewed on YouTube. He entered Saturday’s match undefeated in his two organized fights.

But Shaw insisted that a Slice defeat would not have stunted the organizers’ overall strategy. “He’s just one of the marketing pushes,” he said. “The next show, I could be investing in someone else. Kimbo may have lost some fans, but people will still come to see him — some to see him get beat and others to cheer him on.”

Thompson seemed to dominate Slice during the second round and was on top of him after knocking him to the ground and was able to deliver many blows to the head before the bell was finally rung to signal the end of the round.

Yet, early in the third round Slice managed to hit the side of Thompson’s head and caught his cauliflower ear where pus and blood began to flow out. “I thought it was a good stoppage,” Shaw said. “Thompson’s eyes were glassy; his ear was bleeding profusely. The referee couldn’t tell if it was coming from inside the ear or not.”

Miragliotta had been personally selected to officiate the fight by Nicholas Lembo, the counsel to the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. “EliteXC had no input whatsoever in the selection of the referee, and originally they had suggested other referees,” Lembo said.

Miragliotta explained his decision to Lembo after the fight. “He thought at the end of the second round that they were both completely exhausted and was keeping a close eye on both of them,” Lembo said. “Kimbo happened to get off the first couple clean shots and, in his judgment and his experience, he thought Thompson was done.”

Some fans believed that the Ref was told to stop the fight early if anything “too gory or morally horrifying could happen.” However, Shaw said the Miragliotta was not told to do this. Lembo said that he was doing his job and protecting the fighters.

“If it lasted two more punches,” he said, “I might have been here defending the decision to let it go long enough for one of the fighters to get hurt.”