The List: The stoppages that came way, way too late

For too long, our writers’ hyper-specific arguments have been confined to the private corridors of the Internet. Welcome to The List, where we take their instant-message bickerings, add a little polish, and make them public.

Today: After a shuffle of too-soon, too-late controversies at UFC on FOX 14, we take a look at a few that were without question, way, way too late. They should be read as cautionary tales, MMA fans and officials.

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Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino vs. Jan Finney at “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum,” because the stars aligned in all the wrong ways

Jan Finney and Cristiane Justino

Steven Marrocco: The secret on Cristiane Justino’s brutal efficiency had been revealed long before she stepped into the Strikeforce cage on June 26, 2010. She’d blasted Gina Carano into retirement nine months earlier and pounded out Marloes Coenen to defend her featherweight belt. With few credible contenders lying in wait, the promotion struggled to find a suitable opponent. So it booked her opposite 8-7 veteran Jan Finney.

Although Finney had fought some of the tougher talent in women’s MMA prior to that night, “Cuddles” had never faced anyone like Justino. Referee Kim Winslow, meanwhile, was still a new face on the circuit of big-show referees. The circumstances were ripe for trouble, which appeared in the form of a left hook and knee to the jaw that “Cyborg” landed just 55 seconds into the fight.

Finney’s left cheekbone swelled as Justino mauled her against the cage. A little over a minute later, she was dropped by another punch, clinging to her Brazilian opponent’s leg for dear life. But help would not arrive – at least not for her. Instead, Winslow would ask Justino if she wanted Finney to stand up.

Midway through the first frame, commentator Gus Johnson, who two months earlier had cemented infamy in MMA circles for his apologist tone during a televised in-cage brawl, ventured they’d have to stop the bout. But it went on, and on, and on, as Finney alternatively turtled on the mat and clung to Justino for dear life. With less than a minute left in the first, the audience began to boo.

The end mercifully came at the 2:56 mark of the second round, when a knee to Finney’s midsection crumpled her to the mat and Winslow waved off the fight. In a subsequent interview, Finney defended Winslow’s performance and said she was mostly unhurt (though she sustained a fractured orbital and lacerations that triggered a six-month suspension). It seemed the most fortunate outcome given the unnecessary damage she took.

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Matt Brown vs. Pete Sell at UFC 96, because even in the robot future, it will still be the worst

Matt Brown and Pete Sell

Ben Fowlkes: Let me set a scene for you gents: It’s early March, Columbus, Ohio, the year of our Lord 2009. A gentle rain has been falling all week, and the Arnold Sports Festival is in town, bringing with it the unmistakable scent of bronzer and artificially elevated testosterone.

In front of 17,000 fans packed into a hockey arena, Matt Brown drops Pete Sell with a stiff right hand just seconds into their welterweight bout at UFC 96. Referee Yves Lavigne steps between them and wraps his arms around Brown, a gesture that usually serves to pull whatever string it is on Mike Goldberg that gets him to bellow, “It is alllllll over!”

Only, wait. It is not all over. Lavigne seems to have, what, changed his mind? Seriously? Yep, there he goes, backing off as Sell rises to his feet with all the grim determination of an extra in a zombie movie.

“Go, go, go!” Lavigne tells Brown, who is currently flashing the universal gesture for, “What the hell, bro?”

“Good job by Yves Lavigne,” says Goldberg, without a hint of sarcasm.

Roughly one minute and about 40 mostly undefended, frustrated strikes later, Sell collapses again, this time without even being hit. Brown stands over him and punches him twice. These are not vicious punches. These are sad punches, heavy and slow with regret. They are “what the hell, bro” punches. At last Lavigne gets the point and waves his hands in the air (cue: “It is allllll over.”). Sell lunges for one last takedown, because why not?

This, my friends, is the worst stoppage in MMA history. It’s the bad stoppage that has everything. You’ve got referee indecision. You’ve got the woozy stumbling of a hopelessly wounded fighter on auto-pilot. You’ve got a winner conflicted and disgusted by the extent of the brutality required of him. Man’s inhumanity to man, and whatnot. Through it all, you’ve got Goldberg on the mic, acting like everything went as smoothly as possible (though even Lavigne would later admit he’d screwed this one up).

This is the bad stoppage against which all other bad stoppages must be measured. Decades from now, when your grandkids discuss a bad stoppage from the prior weekend’s robot MMA event (the one broadcast live from the flooded ruins of the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which the rise of poisoned seas has rendered utterly inhospitable to humans), one of them will turn to the other and ask (via Apple’s telepathy app, iMind, natch), “Wait, how bad? Like, regular bad? Or Matt Brown-Pete Sell bad?”

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Pat Curran vs. Joe Warren at Bellator 60, because arm flailing isn’t intelligent defense

Mike Bohn: The Bellator 60 featherweight title fight between Pat Curran and Joe Warren wasn’t just a late stoppage. It was a cruel, sickening and near criminal piece of officiating by Jeff Malott.

Some referees seem to have the idea embedded in their minds that a fight should only be stopped once a fighter hits the floor from damage. That’s absolutely not the case, and Curran vs. Warren is a perfect example.

Curran hurt Warren with a knee early in Round 3 and proceeded to follow with a relentless onslaught of punches, knees and elbows. Warren stumbled around the cage, turning away from his opponent and showing several signs he was clearly unable to intelligently defend himself.

While it was obvious the fight should have been stopped then and there, Warren’s body language apparently indicated the fight should continue. Malott allowed “The Baddest Man on the Planet” to take shot after shot despite the fact Warren inexplicably stayed upright – on instinct, plus a little help from his back against the fence. As he absorbed each massive blow to the face, Malott just stood there and witnessed the massacre.

After almost too many shots to count, Warren finally crumbled to the mat, and that’s when Malott finally stepped in.

There’s only three possible explanations for such a horrid stoppage: Warren owed Malott some money, Warren did some funny stuff with Malott’s wife and he wanted revenge, or Malott is simply incompetent beyond explanation.

The latter is the most likely reason, but whatever it was, Malott’s complete disregard for fighter safety almost certainly took time off Warren’s fighting career and probably his overall lifespan as well.

Matt Manzanares vs. Junior Maranhao at RFA 14, because good god, man, what does it take?

Matt Manzanares and Junior Maranhao

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Brent Brookhouse: Quite simply, it’s the worst late stoppage in MMA because it’s the stoppage that never was. Maybe that should disqualify it from inclusion, but I’ll let you all be the judge.

Matt Manzanares and Junior Maranhao met in the main event of the evening to battle over the promotion’s flyweight title. The fight was fairly competitive. At 6-1, Maranhao was huge for flyweight, towering over the 5-5 Maranhao.

The Maranhao height advantage led to the early stages of the fight playing out as one might expect, with the shorter fighter struggling to get inside before eventually finding some success going to the body. The fight went back and forth, both men threatening on the feet and on the ground.

Manzanares would score a big knockdown and did start to land big right hands with some frequency as the fight went along. Round 4 would end with a deep triangle attempt by Manzanares that was close to getting a finish.

Following the round, this happened:

Maranhao stumbled back to his corner, sat on his stool and collapsed, face first, to the canvas. His corner would revive him and, without hesitation, insist that he was fine to continue.

The referee, who was standing directly in front of Maranhao at the time, seemed to see no issue and walked away. Moments later, a doctor walked into the cage, had a brief chat with the cornermen, and exited the cage without checking the fighter in any way.

Despite the entire situation being caught on camera, the Wyoming State Board of Mixed Martial Arts would issue statements after the event that Maranhao “was thoroughly examined by a licensed physician after he fell off his stool between the 4th and 5th round of the RFA event in Cheyenne on April 11. He was also examined by his corner men and the referee.”

No, he wasn’t.

And that’s why this takes the cake for me. Despite Maranhao being able to continue through the fifth round before losing a decision, the actions by everyone involved were inexcusable.

Seeing men failing to respond to advice in their corner in combat sports is frightening enough; seeing a man allowed to continue fighting despite having been unconscious on the floor is the worst late stoppage of all, since the stoppage simply never came.