It's a little miraculous there aren't more deaths in small shows, as sloppily as many are run and as incautious as ACs can be at the lower levels. Even when the ACs are more "on top of it," some of their policies & officials are so combat-ignorant their being more controlling actually makes it more dangerous for the fighters. At least at the high levels, when officiating and administrating is idiotic, fans and participants nationwide see it and raise a stink. At the lower levels, you get some idiot officials who are controlling and insistent on rules that were developed for the upper levels (e.g. about when you can and can't stop the action to put a mouthpiece back in -- which literate refs ignore even at the highest level, *because* they are better refs) at all the wrong times, and completely absent at critically important moments. One locker room I was in for a small state regulated show didn't even have an official in the staging area for most of the card, and fighters were going out without having their gloves checked from the time of the initial fighter meeting til they were in the cage. There literally was no one checking them before entering, or in the locker room, at all, after the wraps were signed. That wasn't CA, for the record, where I have only seen tightly run ships when the AC is present over the past few years, even for ammy events.
And regardless of what the fighters want, no late stoppages should ever occur in small promotions. If it's in the UFC, for the participants, it's the Big Show. You give them some extra leeway because they have worked hard and long to get this far. At the lower level, your job is to protect them (even if it means a loss, where there is some small chance of a comeback from being hurt) so they can make it to the big show.
There's no excuse for late stoppages at the lower levels. The only reason for it is exploitation (to please dipshit crowds).
