This is a legitimately tough watch.
Being a combat sports referee is a tough gig. Their only job is to ensure that the fight is played out fairly and that the fighters are protected from receiving any unnecessary damage.
The latter can be difficult to achieve considering that the goal in a lot of these sports is to cause injury or render your opponent unconscious.
These athletes are trained to go for the kill and finish their opponents and in the middle of the storm, that primal urge for violence can be very difficult to calm. Sometimes the referee is too late to pull one man off another through no fault of his own.
Devastating KO by Michael Cora! #TitanFC44 pic.twitter.com/E2fLwoBYes
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) May 20, 2017
Other times, the man in the middle can have the best of intentions, but being overzealous can end in the same in result.
https://twitter.com/Jolassanda/status/865588437667262465
And the most frightening of all, sometimes a referee can sit and watch a fighter take a beating without fighting back and just decide not to step in to put them out of their misery.
This happened during the inaugural LFA welterweight title fight between Derrick Krantz and Ben Neuman at the weekend.
In the second round, Krantz dropped his opponent early with a heavy shot, then landed a relentless barrage for what seemed like an eternity. Neuman floundered on the canvas eating shot after shot, although he was attempting to defend himself, he had little to no success. It was only when a deep cut opened up on his face that the ref finally called the beatdown to a halt.
https://twitter.com/ZPGIFs/status/865770230374694912
