Sometimes fans have strange reactions to stoppages involving injuries so I'm going to separate them into levels with examples going from freak accidents to outright victory. If more people had a template for judging these wins, some of the hysteria would cease.
1. Freak injury not caused by winner. Eilers vs Arlovski. Knee injury that had nothing to do with Arlovksi. Deserves no credit.
2. Unintentional defensive maneuver. Weidman-Anderson 2. Will be controversial but Weidman was clearly just instinctively protecting both his leg and body (he doesn't even pick where the strike is going) - it was not a perfectly timed check. Deserves a little but not much credit.
3. Positional offence that shouldn't conceivably cause injury. Maia-DHK. Fighter establishes dominant postion but is not doing anything that could foreseeably end the fight.
4. Intentional defensive maneuver. Can't think of a specific example but any deliberate, well-timed checked kick injury stoppage will do. Deserves credit BUT the odds of it directly ending the fight are very low, so still should be seen as a somewhat 'lucky' victory.
5. Unintentional offensive strike. Strike that is blocked/misses its intended target. Once again can't think of specific example but an arm break from a kick intended to the head/body fits here. Does not include deliberate wearing down of the arms. Winner deserves some credit.
6. Unclear but likely offensively caused injury. Pete Spratt-Robbie Lawler/Woodley vs Condit. The hardest category. In both these cases, the winner kicked the cunt out of the loser, but the injury itself was separate from any direct strike. Winner still deserves a lot of credit but the win is not fully decisive.
7. Unintentional injury caused by landed intentional strike. Francis vs Cain. Winner deserves almost full credit as they still caused the injury and may have finished fight regardless of injury. But nobody intends to hurt a guy's leg by smashing his jaw, and that raises some small doubt, so it's a 95% but not 100% decisive victory.
8. Capitalizing on injury you caused earlier. Clay Guida vs RDA. Guida breaks RDA's jaw with strikes and then applies force later for the sub. Full credit.
9. Injuries caused by direct intentional offence. Self-explanatory.
1. Freak injury not caused by winner. Eilers vs Arlovski. Knee injury that had nothing to do with Arlovksi. Deserves no credit.
2. Unintentional defensive maneuver. Weidman-Anderson 2. Will be controversial but Weidman was clearly just instinctively protecting both his leg and body (he doesn't even pick where the strike is going) - it was not a perfectly timed check. Deserves a little but not much credit.
3. Positional offence that shouldn't conceivably cause injury. Maia-DHK. Fighter establishes dominant postion but is not doing anything that could foreseeably end the fight.
4. Intentional defensive maneuver. Can't think of a specific example but any deliberate, well-timed checked kick injury stoppage will do. Deserves credit BUT the odds of it directly ending the fight are very low, so still should be seen as a somewhat 'lucky' victory.
5. Unintentional offensive strike. Strike that is blocked/misses its intended target. Once again can't think of specific example but an arm break from a kick intended to the head/body fits here. Does not include deliberate wearing down of the arms. Winner deserves some credit.
6. Unclear but likely offensively caused injury. Pete Spratt-Robbie Lawler/Woodley vs Condit. The hardest category. In both these cases, the winner kicked the cunt out of the loser, but the injury itself was separate from any direct strike. Winner still deserves a lot of credit but the win is not fully decisive.
7. Unintentional injury caused by landed intentional strike. Francis vs Cain. Winner deserves almost full credit as they still caused the injury and may have finished fight regardless of injury. But nobody intends to hurt a guy's leg by smashing his jaw, and that raises some small doubt, so it's a 95% but not 100% decisive victory.
8. Capitalizing on injury you caused earlier. Clay Guida vs RDA. Guida breaks RDA's jaw with strikes and then applies force later for the sub. Full credit.
9. Injuries caused by direct intentional offence. Self-explanatory.
