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[Cat--Smasher]

Ref Josh Rosenthal Acknowledges Late Stoppage In Mark Munoz TKO Loss

Referees are often the brunt of criticism for their split-second decisions, but rarely do they publicly voice any post-fight opinion on their own performances. Even rarer is the situation when one admits a mistake. Usually, they simply leave their work as its own argument, leaving us to form our own conclusions.

That makes what Josh Rosenthal did this week all the more respectable. Less than one day after refereeing the Chris Weidman vs. Mark Munoz main event at UFC on FUEL 4, Rosenthal admitted what many had said: that he let the fight go on too long, and let Munoz take too many unnecessary blows.

Just about a minute and a half into the second round, Weidman dropped Munoz with a standing elbow strike and then rode him to the mat where he unloaded with a barrage of 17 punches. The entire sequence from start to finish took only about eight seconds, but many felt Rosenthal could have stepped in much earlier to save Munoz from taking unanswered strikes. Count him among his own critics.

"I came home and I watched it, and I was kind of like you know, if I was sitting here, watching this on the couch, I probably would have been talking smack about myself," he said on SiriusXM's Tapout Radio show.

Rosenthal went on to say he was "slow on the trigger" and let the fight go on a few punches too long.

"I always say accountability is a huge part of the sport, and you are accountable for your actions," he said. "I feel like I was just a little slow on the trigger [Wednesday]. I don't want to see guys take unnecessary punishment. It's a rough sport. Everyone knows what they sign in for, but it's a millisecond-basis game. You're making choices right there on the spot, and in the heat of the moment, I felt like I was seeing some stuff. In hindsight, I have to step my game up and make sure I'm on point for the next guys."

Ref Josh Rosenthal Acknowledges Late Stoppage In Mark Munoz TKO Loss - MMA Fighting

*Good on Josh. Back into the good books.

**So those who thought it was a good stoppage. Does this change your mind at all?

[NLRepublic]

Josh seems like a cool dude.

[SimpleJack]

He said the right things and that's nice.

It's just hard to see a guy who everyone acknowledges is one of the best dudes around take 8-11 unnecessary GORILLA punches after he's been out.

[krayven]

I like Rosenthal. His calm during the Carwin v Brock match made me a fan. I have no idea how watching Carwin maul Lesnar didn't make him trigger happy.


He made a bad call here but I don't need or want his head on a stick over it. Refs are in a tough spot. Some guys are known for their ability to take severe beatings and stay in there. Some need to be rescued the moment they are rocked

[SwordofAres]

I've always liked Rosenthal and I'm glad to see him acknowledge his mistake. People make mistakes and he made one that night. Hopefully he learns from it and we dont see this happen again.

[CapCee]

Nearly every event I say to people "that ref with the tatts on his arm does a really good job". The late stoppage was horrible. I just don't want to crucify the man from one terrible mistake. We all mess up at work I'm sure, let's just hope he doesn't get anyone seriously injured from here on out.

[NLRepublic]

Originally Posted by CapCee

Nearly every event I say to people "that ref with the tatts on his arm does a really good job". The late stoppage was horrible. I just don't want to crucify the man from one terrible mistake. We all mess up at work I'm sure, let's just hope he doesn't get anyone seriously injured from here on out.

Yep, agreed man totally

And it's like he said (when admitting his mistake) these are split second decisions. MMA refs have a much harder decision to make than, say, a boxing ref.

Josh for the most part has been a fantastic ref, and I think even before he came out and humbly admitted his mistake in this interview, he deserved a mulligan

[Sakara=Excitement]

Originally Posted by Cat--Smasher

**So those who thought it was a good stoppage. Does this change your mind at all?

I still think that Josh is the best in the business and he was trying to give Mark all the time to recover. In doing so Mark ate some shots.

This is the slope we are all playing on now though. If this makes Josh gunshy, it would be a travesty.

[SimpleJack]

While I agree with most of what you said, you can't give "mulligans" when you're talking about a man's life/livelihood.

Would you give an EMT a "mulligan" if he waited an extra 10-20 seconds to give you CPR or an injection you needed?

Now, I'm not killing Rosenthal here because I think he does a great job for the most part. However, I'm not going to minimize stuff like this either. I was literally SCREAMING for the fight to be stopped and that was from my couch. He was 2 feet away and saw it happening.

Boner move and he should have apologized to Munoz and not justified it by saying "they know what they signed up for" and that "I was a little slow on the trigger."

[CtGreat]

Originally Posted by Sakara=Excitement

I still think that Josh is the best in the business and he was trying to give Mark all the time to recover. In doing so Mark ate some shots.

This is the slope we are all playing on now though. If this makes Josh gunshy, it would be a travesty.

Don't you mean trigger happy?