Ray Sefo speaks out on WSOF 2 time keeping gaffe

http://www.fightline.com/fl/news/2013/0329/554436/andrei-arlovski/

Can you post the article? Link isn't working in my phone Phone Post

It is safe to say that WSOF President Ray Sefo had his hands full last weekend at WSOF 2 in Atlantic City, NJ. The weigh-ins were delayed. A canvas had to be flown in the day of the fight, and cage pads were borrowed from a local promotion in order to pass inspection from the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. The fights went on as planned, but after the cards conclusion someone at Revel Casino pulled a fire alarm, ending any possibility for a post fight presser.

I caught up with Sefo this afternoon, and spoke with him about several topics including: The late stoppage at the end of round one in the Arlovski vs. Johnson main event, some of his thought's on dealing with the NJSACB, and the future of title fights in WSOF.

Can you comment on the NJSACB and the stoppage in the first round?

"It's about eight or ten seconds late. To me that's absolutely disgusting because the timekeeper was watching the fight instead of watching the time. That's the reason why he was there. His job is to watch the time, not to watch the fight. That should never, ever, ever happen again because I think between that six to ten seconds…Anthony dropped Arlovski first, but it was the second time Anthony dropped him? I think it should've been stopped after the first time Andrei went down. And then I think more damage was accumulated right after that because of the timekeeper not keeping track of time, and gone over eight to ten seconds over the time it should have been stopped."

Do you think this is maybe a little Karma toward the NJSACB due to everything that happened on Saturday?

"I don't want to comment too much on that. That being said, at the end of the day I thought it was kind of harsh. There were things, very minor things that were pretty much picked apart. The biggest problem for me there and what kind of got me upset, and of course I had to really bite my tongue; was the fact that the fighters had to wait around for another forty five minutes to an hour before all these other things were done. It's just…I don't understand why people don't get it in their heads that they are cutting weight. Some of them are cutting ten pounds. Some of them are cutting four pounds. Some of them are cutting twenty pounds. That being said, you have to think about the athletes first and the fighters first. It just made me upset that the fighters had to sit around and wait because of negligence on whoever's fault that was I don't know, but it should never happen again. I'm a hundred billion percent going to make sure it never happens again."

What ultimately led you to stay away from a title fight? Would it have been too much of a maelstrom of people complaining that maybe Fitch should have another fight like Burkman said, or the organization is just not ready for titles?

"It's only our second show. Myself, and the team sat down and we discussed it. It's only our second show, and June will be our third. Everybody is loving the fact, that every fight is an exciting fight. Right now we aren't looking at titles unfortunately. A hundred percent, titles will be done. At such a time that happens, our guys will fight anybody. We'll probably look at towards the end of this year, if not the end of this year, it could be early next year. A hundred percent we definitely need to have champions. One of those reasons is because people can set goals and strive to be the best, and get to that goal. You know what I mean? The goal is what everybody fights for, to get that belt around their waist."

Herpaderp - he says the guy who was supposed to be watching the clock to announce end of round (i would have assumed this was all automated like those timers they have in most gyms) was watching the fight instead

Lol reminds me of one of those commercials:

''Wanna get away?'' Phone Post

He really like his percentages. Phone Post