Comments Thread For: Gary Antuanne Russell Gets TKO Win Over Rances Barthelemy, Ref Controversially Stops Fight

[aumonier]

The only way Russell can prove it was not a fixed result would be to do an official statement saying he doesn't need referee's help to conclude his fight. As long as he doesn't officially says it, there will be doubts that he and his promoters are behind the controversial decisions in his fights.

[Oldskoolg]

I don’t see corruption, not ready to put on my tin foil hat with the conspiracy theories. But absolutely it’s incompetence, that referee should never get a big fight again. That was a good fight and Russell was getting quite the lesson before it ended. And it also robbed Russell from what may have been a top shelf stoppage

[Coachcody]

Pathetic stoppage by ref......this wasn't an amateur fight.....SMH

[jonnyc420]

Can't fault people for thinking it was fishy, a lot of corruption in the sport. I don't think it was, kind of sucks for Russell but watching the ref he didn't seem too experienced. More experienced refs for the main card fights. Hope to never see that clown of a ref anywhere near a big fight.

[sammyrey]

The guy was going to be ko anyway.... he was looking for the closets corner....jajaja....

[Tomasio]

Bull S H I T stoppage..The ref should never work a major fight, the fight should be declared a "no-contest" & Barthelemy deserves a rematch

[Combat Talk Radio]

Boots rabbit punches a guy to a stoppage: "eh, he'd have gotten stopped anyway"

Gary Antuanne lands a beautiful, flush shot right on the chin that turns Rances rancid for a hot minute: "BS stoppage, PBC setup!"

Never change, NSB. Never change.

[Mammoth]

Lol people get mad at a fighter for a **** ref

[Kannabis Kid]

It was a good fight Rances came to fight for once I guess getting back with Cuellar was a good choice. This wasn't corruption or favoritism for Antuane it was just a bad call from the ref maybe he saw something in Rances eyes who knows, but you can't hate on Russell he caught him with a clean lunging right that Rances didn't see and completely took his legs from under him. The ref robbed us of a good fight hopefully they run it back because Barthelemy stunned Russell in the first and was actually landing some good punches throughout the fight.

[PBR Streetgang]

It "appeared" to be a bad stoppage but the ref was looking at Rances' eyes and it seemed like he saw something he didn't like.

At first, the KD looked like it was more because Rances was off balance but when he walked, his gait looked off to me. He was hurt, ref probably should have let the inevitable happen but I think he saw something in the eyes of the Cuban and waved it off.

It was a good fight up until then, but I don't really have much issue with the stoppage.