Why the main event should have been stopped earlier

What a great UFC 117 we saw last night? We saw a new number one contender in the heavyweight via Junior Dos Santos' win over Roy Nelson, Matt Hughes restaking his claim that he has another title run in him with a submission victory over Ricardo Almedia, Clay Guida doing what Guida does best: be the energizer bunny and beat Rafael Dos Anjos, Jon Fitch destroying Thiago Alves to become the so-called number one contender to GSP's welterweight title... And, then in an epic main event, Anderson Silva beat Chael Sonnen with a triangle choke victory in the 5th round... But, should have it gotten to that to point? ABSOLUTELY NOT...

Silva vs Sonnen was expected to be a cakewalk for Anderson Silva and he would face Vitor Belfort and then move up to light heavyweight... Chael Sonnen had a different plan in mind though... In the very 1st round Sonnen hit silva with a straight right and knocked Silva and easily won that round 10-8 and it was the same thing round 2 as Sonnen took silva down and just grinded him... In the 1st round, Silva wasn't defending himself at all and started to defend himself in the 2nd...

And, you can see throughout the first 2 rounds and heading into the 3rd that silva waas exhausted and was breathing out of his mouth... The 3rd round started and silva came out firing and then Sonnen was on Silva's back and Sonnen hit Silva 32, yes 32 straight UNANSWERED SHOTS TO THE HEAD... And what did referee Josh Rosenthal do? Did exactly what what did the 2 rounds... Stand on his front looking like he wanted to stop it but did nothing...

Josh Rosenthal was the referee for the main event as he was for UFC 116 when Brock Lesnar faced Shane Carwin... In the first round, Carwin hit Lesnar with over 40 straight shots and did not intelligently defend himself... Rosenthal didn't call the fight and Lesnar won via arm triangle choke in the 2nd round of that fight... A lot of people including myself questioned that and said that the fight would have been stopped if it was someone not named Brock Lesnar...

Rosenthal did the same thing last night... You hit someone with 32 unanswered shots in a row without defending yourself and the fight isn't called? You have to defend yourself intelligently and Silva in that instance he did not... It doesn't matter how hard you are getting hit, 32 shots is still 32 shots... Let me hit you with 32 unanswered "potty" shots to the head and see if you like it... I highly doubt you would because I know wouldn't...

Then, when Silva made Sonnen tap out in the 5th round, Rosenthal for a split second wasn't sure if Sonnen tapped out and Silva was telling Rosenthal he tapped out... If a fighter has to tell the referee someone tapped out, then you shouldn't be the referee in the main event of a highly anticpated bout... Right now Chael Sonnen is the uncrowned UFC Middlweight Champion...

A fighter needs to be defending himself at all times, not just 99 percent of the time... Hopefully, Josh Rosenthal will never be a referee in another main event with the title on the line... You have to look out for the best interests for the fighters, not the fans nor the promotion and especially not yourself...