Is it me or referee should be blamed for what's happening with Stevenson?

[g27region]

The last punch landed when Stevenson was unconsciousness. Maybe, just maybe...assuming the fight was in Canada, and shady scorecards before the stoppage...the referee was given instructions to not to stop it too early if Stevenson gets stunned and give him some time to recover. But referee overdid that and stopped the fight too late, when that last punch landed on already knocked out Stevenson which made the situation way worse

All that stuff might break Gvozdyk mentally too, sometimes he was too hesitant even without it

[deanrw]

The last punch landed when Stevenson was unconsciousness. Maybe, just maybe...assuming the fight was in Canada, and shady scorecards before the stoppage...the referee was given instructions to not to stop it too early if Stevenson gets stunned and give him some time to recover. But referee overdid that and stopped the fight too late, when that last punch landed on already knocked out Stevenson which made the situation way worse

All that stuff might break Gvozdyk mentally

Michael Griffin is usually a sound referee. Last weekend though he was horrendous. He basically missed two knockdowns. He seemed behind on the play the entire night. I would not blame him though. Even when they clashed heads earlier in that round the damage could have been done. In a long drawn out fight, he could have suffered a slow hemorrhage in the 3rd round for all we know. That said, Griffin was not on his game.

[SceneBoxer]

Watching a live broadcast of the fight, to me the stoppage was just in time. Could be one punch late but I think the referee was not too close enough to stop it at that point. It's just in time ...

[MastaBlasta]

The stoppage did look late. It's never easy though for the ref to judge exactly when to stop the action. Earlier in the fight Gvodzyk was in nearly the same situation.

It's very unfortunate for Adonis. Prayers for his recovery.

I had posted a while back about older fighters fighting the upcoming lions, and when it would be wise for us as fans to try to discourage older fighters from continuing. All records and exceptional cases aside, I think age 40 should absolutely be a cutoff point, regardless of how the fighter feels about it. Just me ...