UFC newcomer Max Rohskopf decided to not answer the bell after the second round despite his corner disagreement. And this has exposed one of the biggest flaws of the fight game yet again.
How many times have we seen this struggle of the corner to end the fight? Dan Hooker vs Edson Barboza comes to the mind where Barboza was punishing Hooker with brutal body kicks and Hooker had no answers to them whatsoever.
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Recently, the title fight between Felicia Spencer and Amanda Nunes was also one of them where nobody would have complained if Spencer’s corner had decided to throw the towel. Nunes won every second of that fight and Spencer had no answer. Although Spencer proved her mettle by going the distance she did took some unnecessary damage.
Max Rohskopf argues with his corner
A similar situation took place tonight on UFC on ESPN: Blaydes vs Volkov when Austin Hubbard took on the newcomer, Max Rohskopf in a lightweight showdown. Max Rohskopf was an undefeated lightweight prospect coming into this fight. Unfortunately, young Rohskopf was unable to get the dream UFC debut as he suffered the first defeat of his MMA career.
I’d love to get @TeddyAtlasReal’s thoughts on this corner work. I’m also afraid his head might explode watching this. https://t.co/8F0wkffTwh
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 20, 2020
Max requested his coach to call the fight off saying that “I don’t have it”. Despite the coach tried to fire Max up to continue the fight Max repeatedly answered with “call it”.
Finally, when the referee asked Max whether he would like to continue Max decided against the will of his corner.
https://twitter.com/SriramMSays/status/1274453611850989571?s=20
https://twitter.com/JonHamNE/status/1274454073589346310?s=20
Max Rohskopf a quality NCAA wrestler gassing and quitting. short notice or not there's too many factors to consider before annointing any prospect.
— CRE (@powerfulCRE) June 20, 2020
Painful to see Max having to whisper it after MULTIPLE times saying “call it.” Why make your fighter go through that? Unbelievable.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 20, 2020
The fans have come forward to support Max and criticize the coach for forcing him to continue the fight. However, it has to be considered that the coach should know his fighter better than the audience. And the corner was doing nothing but trying to give Max the extra push to reignite the fire in his belly.
There is no right or wrong here as both the fighter and the coach seems to make a good point for their actions. However, it can not be denied that the conversation between max and his coach was tough to watch.