Been watching the Classic footage on ESPN 2 today and saw Fairlcoth lose the reel off of his rod twice already. Never seen that happen before, let alone twice to an Elite Pro. Is he not tightening up the reel seat enough or is he having problems with whatever rod he's using? Crazy to see that happen, even though he did land the fish each time.

Braid, plus bionic ninja hooksets.

I've seen it happen to Elite pros before.  In this case, I'm going to guess a cracked reel seat was the culprit.

Yep, I've cracked reel seats and even had a reel go flying.  The leader knot was another story, probably so pressed for time, had more faith in the durability in the knot than he should have.  That fish was an INCREDIBLE save, though.

Remember too, he was fishing Venice, 100 mile ride each day, maybe through some rough conditions. Not sure how rough that ride is.

I have had some reel seats loosen up on much shorter rough runs on our lake Ontario waters.

Lol, I saw that too. He ended up reeling the line in by hand ;D