After all the confusion that resulted from last night's fight, I wanted to start a thread that would evaluate the potential issues/arguments based on the facts that I saw. First, the facts: 1) the cut was caused by an accidental head butt in round 3. 2) The doc says he never stopped the fight, and just advised the Ref that rock claims he can't see; the doc later claimed in the post fight interview that he never rendered a medical decision on the cut. 3) Rahman never used the words " I quite", or "I won't continue." He just said his vision is blurry. 4) The rules state that if a fighter can't continue due to an accidental head butt and 4 round have not been completed, the fight is ruled a No Contest. 5) The Ref claimed after the fight that the doc stopped the fight; this was reported on the post fight telecast. So this seems like a pretty clear cut case for a reversal to a NC, right? Well, there are some issues... The inquiry will need to determine if a fighter is claiming he can't see due to an accidental butt is sufficient in order for the fight to be a NC. Or is necessary for the doc to specfically say, " in my medical opinion, the fighter can not continue." Remember, the doc said to the ref, the " Rahman claims he can not see"; the doc did not say stop the fight , which is a distinction. The inquiry will have to determine if a fighter's own evaluation of his condition is enough to stop the fight on NC grounds or is it a TKO. The inquiry will also have to determine who actually stopped the fight. The Doc claims he did not, and just relayed rock's personal evaluation to the ref, while the ref seems to be saying the doc stopped the fight. This might be irrelevant or it might be central to the debate depending on what the bylaws of the CSAC say. Finally, it will be need to be determined what the implications are of Rock saying " I can not see clearly". If this is determined to be Rock just imploring the doc to stop the fight based on his condition, then he might be have a shot at getting the reversal. However, if it's determined that saying "I can't see" is evquivalent to saying " I quit, or can't continue", then Rock might have a problem. Frankly, I don't have an answer to these questions because I do not have accesss to the comission's bylaws. If anyone can find them, please post them so we can have a discussion. NYChitman
