Gustafsson lost vs Silva: A Growing Pandemic

Dagwood wrote:

StillWill wrote:I agree that Gustaffason should have engaged more. If he had sat down on his punches he would have had his man out of there by the second. Still in no way did he lose, he coasted to an easy decision.

My point was meant to be that.... IMO way too many times in the fight, Gustafson was running at full speed backwards away from Silva for long distances around the cage. He was continually disengaging from the fight in this manner not simply stepping away to avoid an attack. In fact, he was running so fast backward that Silva couldn't get into engagement-range coming forward running at high speed himself.

I'm not saying the Swede didn't out-score Silva. I am saying that 'if' the ref, or any ref, under the unified rules 'actually' begins to apply foul #23 as it is written then Gustafson would have been repeatedly warned, point-deducted and maybe even DQ'd. This stuff is not being called just like strikes to the back of the head during finishing. Whether it's the commissions not paying attention to it or whether it is a referee cultural thing, idk.

There is a huge difference between backing up to avoid a strike and continually running backward at high speed so that your opponent can't get close enough to hit you. Gustafson was doing this for most of the fight here. Jon Jones does this even more, even turning his back sometimes. It's a large part of their game plans. Shits gotta stop.