SAN DIEGO – Davion Franklin wasn’t pleased with referee Blake Grice at Bellator 300, but he didn’t have a leg to stand on.
Franklin lost by first-round technical submission to Slim Trabelsi this past Saturday at Pechanga Arena. The finish came at the 3:09 mark when Franklin verbally submitted.
After an inside trip from Trabelsi took down Franklin, Franklin could be seen tapping his left knee upon landing on his back as if to indicate he’d been injured. Grice let the action continue for another five seconds before he stopped the fight, leaving observers to wonder what happened.
Making things more confusing was the fact that Franklin immediately shook his head at Grice, appearing to protest the stoppage, but the veteran referee explained to MMA Junkie that the fight-ending sequence was “fairly textbook” from his perspective.
“The fighter got taken down with an inside trip,” Grice said. “The other knee buckled. So when he went down, he tapped. He tapped, and I gave it a second. I said, ‘Are you tapping?’ He said, ‘My knee, my knee!’ That’s a verbal submission, so I stopped the fight.
“Doctors came in. His knee had gone out. I think it may have gone back in, I’m not real sure. But he stood up and he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m fine now.’ And I was like, ‘The fight’s over. That’s a verbal submission.’ He goes, ‘I didn’t know that.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s a tough lesson and I’m sorry, but there’s protocols in place, and I followed them.’ It just is what it is.”
Heavyweight Slim Trabelsi scores the win on his Bellator debut. #Bellator300 @MonsterEnergy Prelims fueled by @Cardenas_Market ▶️ https://t.co/NxwCKFPRok pic.twitter.com/FMSlTjAB7k
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) October 8, 2023
Grice said he immediately noticed Franklin tap on his own knee, which would’ve been enough to interpret as a submission. But Grice said he took those extra few seconds to ensure that was Franklin’s intention.
“I gave him one step further to verify that’s what he wanted to do, and he screamed, ‘My knee,'” Grice said. “That’s when I took that as a verbal submission.”
While the fight-ending sequence seemingly confused Franklin, Grice was certain about his officiating.
“That really was not that complicated,” Grice said. “That was fairly textbook. It confused him – didn’t confuse me that much. It was very simple.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 300.
