Sam Alvey suffered a brutal knockout loss in the Karate Combat main event on Friday after he got demolished by a head kick from ex-UFC heavyweight Robelis Despaigne.
The end was effectively written in stone after Despaigne had already scored a couple of devastating knockdowns, which left Alvey on wobbly legs. Despite the damage done, the referee allowed Alvey to continue even as the Karate Combat commentary team were begging for the fight to get stopped.
The call wasn’t made until Despiagne connected with one more head kick that put Alvey down and out for the final time. But despite criticism for an egregiously late stoppage, Alvey defended the referee and praised his decision to let the fight continue until he was completely done.
“The referee is taking way too much trash talk from everyone,” Alvey said on Instagram. “Before the fight night ever started, the referee came up and introduced himself to us. I told him, I said listen this is a title fight, I’m aware I can take a butt kicking — please let my butt get kicked if it’s going to happen. Don’t stop it early. He didn’t.
“He let me get finished. He let me go out on my shield. I am proud of him. It is how I think all referees should ref.”
Alvey disagreed with the notion that he was toast before that head kick ever landed to end the fight because he was still defending himself.
In fact, Alvey argues that he actually made the right move to block the head kick, he just couldn’t account for the remarkable power that Despaigne was packing in his leg.
“If you look, I blocked his kick, which means I read the kick was coming, I got my hands up and I blocked it,” Alvey said. “It just also means he kicked through it. Old boy was a big dude. He kicked me round one in the leg and he kicked my leg out from under me. I wasn’t expecting that much pressure to hit and it hit and it was just eye shuttening how much power he had.
“So please lay off the ref. I think that’s how all refs should ref but he was doing it specifically because I said let me fight to the finish.”
The loss served as Alvey’s first setback since signing with Karate Combat following the end of his run in the UFC. He’s now 4-1 with one no contest in six appearances.
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