This Referee Learnt That When You’re In The Ring, You Should Always Keep Your Hands Up…
There’s an evil part of every sports fan that just loves when something embarrassing happens to the man in the middle. Whether it’s at a football match and the referee slips, or at a basketball game and the ball bounces off their head, it doesn’t matter. It’s humiliating for them and hilarious for us.
When you bring the same idea into combat sports, suddenly the stakes are raised. Because believe it or not, fighters are trying to inflict damage on each other. If you’re a smaller man, stuck in between two muscular men of mayhem, then you really need to be careful.
This is the situation that referee Ian John-Lewis found himself in when he was in charge of Adonis Stevenson and Badou Jack at the weekend. He got caught between a rock and a hard place, taking a brutal uppercut from Jack, that left him visibly stunned for his troubles. Ouch.
Protect yourself at all times pic.twitter.com/YgcxNUX0cU
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) May 20, 2018
Big Boys
As you can see from the footage above, Jack and Stevenson aren’t small men. The pair were fighting for the WBC light-heavyweight championship. The pair battled to a majority draw, leaving Stevenson with the title despite none of the judges giving him the win. Jack and Stevenson are already planning a rematch in Las Vegas.
The fight itself was often frustrating, with the overall highlight coming when the referee came in to separate Jack and Stevenson from the clinch. The next thing he knew he was seeing stars after the big Swede stunned him with an uppercut. John-Lewis showed he had a chin though, waving away Jack’s apologies and getting the pair to continue. What a guy.
The chin on this ref! pic.twitter.com/fT6qfJansQ
— DICK HERCULES (@RatCatcherMpls) May 20, 2018
Eating Shots
That’s what it looks like when you literally eat a shot. The poor guy literally stepped right into the punch. The worst/best part of this is that Jack has a history of hitting referees. He’s done it before, when he accidentally smacked Arthur McKinney, back in January 2017. You can see that wonderful moment below.
Maybe referees should take their own advice and keep their hands up at all times. We’ve seen in MMA as well, where concussed fighters don’t realize where they are and accidentally clock the referee. Sometimes fighters even cross the line, like Wilhelm Ott in Sweden, when he smashed the referee for failing to stop the fight.
Deranged
For sheer drama though, few incidents will beat Conor McGregor attacking Marc Goddard at a Bellator event in Dublin last year. His friend and bodyguard, Charlie Ward, had just won in controversial circumstances, so the Irishman decided the best way to celebrate was to gatecrash the cage.
Goddard tried to tell him to get out, but McGregor had had previous with the UK-based referee. He went on a crazy rant before giving Goddard a shove. Bellator executives were delighted because it was free marketing for them. The UFC was furious because it was free marketing for Bellator. Ultimately McGregor escaped without punishment. Oh, the joys of being a referee.
