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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
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The RFA 14 event from Friday night in Wyoming continues to be a source of conversation in the MMA world, and now RFA promoter Ed Soares has commented on what happened in the Matt Manzanares vs. Junior Maranhao fight.
Soares, who manages top Brazilian fighters in Anderson Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, among many others, wasn't in attendance at Friday's show in Wyoming as he was in Abu Dhabi with Nogueira. He didn't see the incident with Maranhao passing out off his stool and being allowed to continue until later in the weekend, and agrees with the calls saying the commission shouldn't have let him continue.
"I missed it because I was in Abu Dhabi, but I just watched it. I don't know what to think," Soares commented in an interview with BloodyElbow.com. "As a promoter we kind have to put it in the hands of the commission to make sure things are done right. It's their responsibity to look out for the fighter and stop the fight, we can't do that. Maybe the referee missed him falling over, I couldn't tell. But someone, like the doctor, should have checked him. And I didn't see him really examine him at all.
"We all make mistakes but at the end of the day you want the fighter's safety to come first and so you really can't allow for mistakes when it comes to things like this."
Commenting further on the incident was Pat Miletich as well, who had the call on the night alongside Michael Schiavello. Both of them were incensed with the lack of action and attention to Maranhao by the doctors after the collapse, and let their feelings know on the broadcast. Miletich expounded upon those thoughts over the weekend.
"We didn't like what we saw. I think you could hear that when it happened during the broadcast that we weren't comfortable with what was going on," Miletich said. "I don't know what his corner or the referee were doing. I know the doctor came over and talked to someone in his corner and then left. I didn't see him flash his light in his eye or actually examine the fighter to make sure he was OK, but then I didn't go to medical school myself so maybe you don't have to actually check the fighter to see if he's OK.
"There [are] repercussions for the fighters when they do something wrong. There's suspensions and fines when they get in trouble. But when the referees, the judges, the doctors, and others do anything wrong are there repercussions? Doesn't seem to be any usually."
"It's a dangerous sport, but the people involved shouldn't be trying to make it worse," he continued. "I cared about whether I would be able to spell my name when I was 60 years old. But in the cage or ring not everyone is thinking about that at that moment. They're thinking about winning so you hope that the people around them do the right thing and protect them. You hope that the officials who's job it is to look out for the fighters safety do the right thing and protect them. If that takes throwing in the towel and having them mad at them, well they should still do it because that's what they're there for - to look out for their fighter."
PENICK'S ANALYSIS: This is really why there's been such outrage to the entire incident and Wyoming's response. It's about fighter safety, and doing everything that can be done in this sport to avoid serious injury or death. Wyoming massively failed in their duties, and their reaction to the outcry was just as bad, showcasing a lack of recognition of how wrong they were. This is not the type of thing that can be allowed to transpire, it just can't, and if it's swept under the rug or ignored then a great disservice is done to the fighters, the fans, and the sport itself.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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