Earlier we put the spotlight on a news report from Albuquerque that had the clip of popular hometown fighter Holly Holm being knocked out by France's Anne Sophie Mathis. It was a pretty brutal knockout, and then the newscaster said clearly that the fight should have been stopped well before it was, but their clips didn't show just why he said that.
Now you can see more, and find out for yourself that he was absolutely right. Here are highlights from the entire fight, courtesy KRQE:
The brutality started particularly in the sixth round, when referee Rocky Burke called a clear knockdown of Holm a slip quite wrongly, and then allowed Holm to take ugly punishment for the remainder of the round. At the end of it, she staggered to her corner.
In the seventh, Holm was absolutely, 100% being demolished by Mathis, and was at one point out on her feet and being held up only by the ropes. Here's a snap of that moment:
So what did Rocky Burke do there? You'd guess he's jumping in to stop the fight, as Holm has stopped responding and would be face-down on the canvas if not for the ropes. No, no! You're wrong. Rocky Burke instead gets Holm untangled from the ropes, stands her up, and then allows Mathis to come and knock Holm out ice cold.
This is negligent refereeing at best, extremely dangerous refereeing more accurately. Yes, boxing is a tough sport where people get hurt, and the fighters go into the ring expecting to take punishment. I'm not trying to be parental about this. But Holm could have been seriously injured when Burke needlessly allowed her to take more shots to the head. The fight was over. It could have and arguably should have been stopped in the sixth round. The knockout was unnecessary.
Thankfully, Holly appeared to be OK at the post-fight presser. Thankfully, this didn't go really wrong. But it could have.