Monday 19 March 2012

Sheila Gaff Knocks Out Jennifer Maia - Controversial?

On Saturday night, Sheila "The German Tank" Gaff ran over Jennifer Maia at Cage Warriors Fight Night 4 in Dubai in just ten seconds.  With the win, she advances  to the final of a four woman 125lb tournament and faces the winner of Aisling Daly and Rosi Sexton later this year.

For Gaff, that was her sixth knockout and tenth career finish out of ten career wins.  The knock out has been surrounded by controversy though as people worry that she took advantage of Maia's lowered guard, when she was looking to touch gloves and knocked her out with a sucker punch.



Now, I would argue that Gaff did nothing wrong.  It goes without saying that she did not break the rules, but I also do not think she did anything cheap.  They touched gloves at the start of the fight and Gaff seems to walk across the cage looking ready to do business, with her guard up.  Any study of Gaff would surely have led Maia to realise that it is worth keeping your guard up right from the bell because the German always starts quickly.

The second part of Gaff's defense, is that the punch she lands is not the one that does any damage.  Maia does not seem rocked at all by it and looks to clinch with Gaff.  Rather than this being the defensive maneuver of a bewildered or shocked opponent, Maia clearly attempts to pull Gaff's head down to land knees.  This is when Gaff lands the knockout blow.

I do not think it is that controversial, but plenty of people seem unhappy about it.  What do you think?  Hit the comments section below with your thoughts.

1 comment:

  1. She's a sucker punching little bitch and it's not the first time she's done it either. She also sucker punched an opponent in a kickboxing match on that particular occasion she is the one who put her hand out to touch gloves only to pull it back to strike when her opponent went in to touch gloves.

    And yes she's not doing anything against the rules but it's widely frowned upon by any half-decent sportsman. Even Nick Diaz, who is pretty notorious for his lack of sportsmanship at times doesn't do this. When Scott Smith tried to touch gloves, Nick simply slapped his hand away like "fuck that" he didn't try and take advantage of it. Not the attitude of a true fighter or sportsman imo.

    I hope she is absolutely destroyed in her UFC debut.

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