Texas Commission Proves How Inept They Are; Says Oxygen Okay

Somehow we should not be surprised by this. Despite the obvious reasons that it's not okay for oxygen canisters to be used right before a fight starts, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation thinks it's completely okay. Not only did they find the oxygen use to be okay, which I stress, in my eyes, is not at all acceptable, but they also seem to think that everything else about the night went just great. MMA Junkie has the story:

Susan Stanford, the TDLR's Public Information Officer, today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal and K.J. Noons were within their rights to use bottled oxygen prior to competition.

Additionally, the TDLR found no lapses in officiating with Noon's second-round TKO of Jorge Gurgel or Chad Griggs' second-round TKO of Bobby Lashley.

The argument they make is that it is not a banned substance and they even consulted with the cageside physician and he said it was okay. So I guess that settles that. It's pretty easy to me to see why it's a problem. It's been researched to death and guess what? It improves an athletes performance. It gives them a bigger gas tank. That's an unfair advantage if the guy is taking it right before the fight starts. How is that acceptable? They love a crusade against steroids but don't mind things like this? Unbelievable.

As bad as that is, it doesn't end with that. Anyone who watched the show knows there were issues with both the KJ Noons-Jorge Gurgel fight and the Bobby Lashley-Chad Griggs fight. However, as you can see above, the commission finds no lapses in officiating. I'm calling bullshit on this one. More from Junkie:

"[TDLR] representative Greg Alvarez said the strike was already started when the (final) bell rang," Stanford said. "That's the position of TDLR. No action will be taken against the referee."

This is in reference to the knee that Noons landed on Gurgel at the end of the fight. Here's a question in regards to this statement they've made. How does it matter if the bell had began to ring? Wait a minute, what bell? The fight gets stopped because the ref steps in. The ref had already clearly stepped in to stop the fight when Noons threw the knee. That's only part of the problem. The ref made several clear mistakes prior to this happening. Noons barely beat the horn, and possibly didn't, in the first round when he floored Gurgel with a huge left hook. Clearly wobbly and on queer street, there is no reason for Gurgel to be allowed to continue. The ref had to literally pull him to his corner.

You only get a break of one minute between rounds so of course Gurgel was still out of it coming into round two. He was slow with his punches and had zero reaction time. So of course, Noons floors him again with an overhand right and another left hook. Gurgel goes down and Noons stops thinking the ref would jump in, like he very clearly should have, to stop the fight. The referee actually starts to go in as if he is going to do so then inexplicably stops and lets the fight continue because he sees Gurgel make a lame dive at Noons leg. As the ref backs off again, Noons looks at him wondering why the fight is being allowed to continue before unleashing more shots on the clearly unable to defend himself Gurgel. The ref wavers but finally steps in to stop it and while doing so Noons throws the knee. But hey, there was no lapse in judgement on that one.

In regards to the Lashley stand up they had this to say:

"The referee felt there was a lull in action, and he had gotten them to their feet when he saw the cut," Stanford said. "[The referee] had the doctor look at it, and then started the action again on their feet."

The Combative Sports Program's statutes state that a referee is allowed to restart fighters on their feet after a lull in action.

Okay, so apparently the rules say that it was perfectly fine to do what the referee did. Here's the thing about that. It's a stupid rule that makes no sense. Lashley had worked his way to full mount on Griggs. He may not have been doing a whole lot of damage but Griggs had done absolutely nothing to get out of that position. He should have to be the one who gets out of that, not the referee letting him out because he felt there was a lull in action. That's not cool at all. That would be like a referee forcing a coach to call a deep pass play in an NFL game because a team has had too many consecutive 4 yard rushing plays. It's ridiculous and directly led to the result of the fight.

After the ill advised decision to restart the fight with both fighters standing, Lashley immediately lunged for Griggs leg and held on while Griggs threw many a vicious elbow to the side of Lashley's head. That never would have happened if the fight was restarted where it should have been with Lashley back in full mount. Would he have lost the fight anyway? Knowing what we know now about him having to be taken to the hospital for severe dehydration right afterward means we can say with confidence that he probably would have. That does not excuse the fact that the referee made a poor judgement call. I don't care if there is a lull in action, you don't stand a guy up when he has such an advantageous position. You make the other fighter work to get out of it. Big John must have been shaking his head in the back.