Make the call

In a recent UFC event, there was a bit of a controversy regarding the stoppage of a fight. Max Rohskopf decided to call it quits at the end of the second round. The controversy arose due to the interesting the reaction of his corner.

Before I get into the nitty gritty of this story, I feel it is necessary to set up some background and context. This fight would’ve been Max’s dream – it was his debut in the UFC. After a successful wrestling career, Max moved to MMA and won his first five fights rather impressively. All 5 were won via submission; four of which were in the first round. Max took the fight on short notice and given the training available given the Lockdown in America, he would not have been at his best. Everyone in the UFC is good too. This is one of the toughest proving grounds in the world. Max was doing well in the first round, then started getting hit a bit in the second. This led to Max deciding he wanted out. You can hear him at the end of the round saying, “call it.” His cornerman Robert Drysdale was trying to encourage him to continue rather than just pulling the pin – was that the right thing to do?

This is not a simple yes-no answer in my opinion. First off, I was lucky enough to train with Robert Drysdale in America and New Zealand. Even getting to spend some time with him off the mat. I can tell you that he is a great guy, very humble and normal considering he was/is one of the best grapplers on the planet. To be honest, in his position, I feel like I would’ve done the same thing. When you have a fighter in competition you are doing everything to get the best out of them, to get them to end of the fight and all going well, get the win. When your fighter is starting to get down and frustrated, it is your job to get their sprits back up so they can perform at the level they’re capable off. 

The fighter and the trainer are doing everything they can to get the win. When the fighter losses belief, the trainer picks him up, then when things get unsafe, the referee is there to stop the fight. Often having the doctor there to offer medical advice and stop the fight on medical grounds in necessary. For a trainer, it can be very hard to stop the fight as you know you are killing the dream of your fighter. In the lead up to the fight, you’ve shared blood and sweat with them, often desiring the win as much as them. This means you are emotionally invested and basing your decisions on emotion rather then logic, which lead to the problem you saw in the video. Robert Drysdale did not want to see the fighter let himself down as was doing everything he could to get him back in the right head space to finish the fight.

However, the trainer is the one person that knows the fighter inside and out, they know when the fighter is performing at their best. The trainer is also there to protect their fighter. Even if it means the fighter hates you for a day or two. If your fighter is taking a lot of damage, as the coach, you have to ask yourself is it worth still trying to get the win? If the fighter does not look like winning and is taking way too much damage,then it is your job to call the fight. By doing this, it prevents injury, damage and can prolong their career. 

The question in my mind for the trainer, was he making his decision for himself of for the fighter. Lets face it,you get a fighter on TV and he is fighting out of your gym, there is a certain amount of pride involved. He will want to put on a good show to get more fights for his fighters and so on. But ask any fighter/athlete and it takes a fair bit of time between the time you think about quitting to actually saying “call it” on the stool. By that stage you are done, you mentally gave up minutes ago and everything that happened since then has only confirmed your decision to “call it.” The trainer should know this in theory and given the despondent body language, in addition to Max repeatedly saying, “Call it.” From an outside perspective, the decision looks a simple one.

You can make your own call on this, when you take out emotion then yes, the decision is an easy one. However,that is not how life is. We, as humans, are fuelled by emotion and all of us make decisions based on emotion rather logic on a daily basis. That doubles for the people in your life that you care about and believe me, trainers really care about their fighters. For me, I would have done what Drysdale did, the referee is there as a back-up. Maybe you could say I will give you 1min to go and give it hell to win this fight, and if it doesn’t happen, I will throw in the towel. What I do know is that I feel sorry for Max since everyone knows him as the guy that quit on his UFC debut and that will take a fair bit of work to get out of his head. 

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor