Click Debate: What’s the delicate balance between an early and late MMA stoppage?

Fighter safety is of the utmost importance. Saving fighters, most of whom are too tough for their own good, from themselves is one of the primary functions of a referee.

Jason Herzog thinks about that every time he steps into a cage. He also thinks about other things, like the responsibility he has to give an athlete a fighting chance.

“Did I give whomever every chance to fight?” Herzog said. … “That’s their livelihood. That’s their record. At a lower level, that’s their chance to get into Bellator or UFC. ‘I lost this fight, now I can’t get into UFC or I can’t get into Bellator.’ Or they’re in one of the big organizations and this was their shot for a title. They don’t put an asterisk on that later on and say ‘ref stopped it early.’ They just say loss. And [the fighters] say, ‘I have half the money I would have made, because you screwed up.'”

When to stop a fight is an incredibly inexact science. The language of the official rule says that a bout should continue unless one of the fighters stops “intelligently” defending himself or herself. That is not always apparent to the viewer watching at home or from the crowd, at least not as apparent as it is for the referee a few feet away.

Last week, two stoppages on competing cards came under scrutiny. Many said Cris Cyborg’s finish of Leslie Smith at UFC 198 in Brazil was too early. The finish of another Cyborg — Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos — by Saad Awad at Bellator 154 in San Jose was pegged as too late.

Herzog was the referee for the Awad-Santos fight. And his decision to let Santos take dozens of unanswered blows to the face centers around that “intelligent defense” rule. In Herzog’s interpretation, Santos was following instructions when told to move. He was working to better his position and latch onto Awad’s leg for a submission.

“I feel like I’m looking at it from an uneducated standpoint on what it takes to finish or to get a sweep from there,” said Herzog, who is a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. “I see Cyborg’s hips are elevated, he’s pressuring off of one leg and this is how I would elevate an opponent if I have half guard in and I’m trying to pull him over and re-attack a heel hook.”

Just because Herzog did not necessarily agree with Santos’ choice to eat punches while attempting that submission does not mean the fight should be over, in the referee’s estimation. The fact that Santos still had the druthers to make such a decision — right or wrong — told Herzog that he was still in the fight.

“You’re moving,” Herzog said. “You’re not moving in a way that I think universally people would agree is a good way for you to move, by stopping this punch with your face. But you have 30-plus fights and this is your fight to have. I can’t fight this fight for you. I have to let you fight your fight, even if that goes into this spiral that ultimately becomes your detriment.”

When referee Eduardo Herdy stopped the …

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