Red, I really don't know what the lead-in was that set up the contest. Perhaps Gbru knows. My best guess is that Bear wanted to put someone in the box, and just assumed he had a winner with Cliff. He's seen Cliff play for years, and Cliff is comfortable in Mobile. After all, Cliff was the best for several years until Efren perfected his winning 1P methods. I imagine he hadn't seen Frost play much, and simply underestimated Frost's mastery of the game.
I'm sure it didn't help when Cliff played a little below his current game, but it's hard to imagine that Bear may have felt that Cliff dumped. Cliff is no choir boy, and he's undoubtedly done business on occasion. But in this case I'll guess that Bear just realized he made a bad match-up, got upset, and took it out on Cliff. No one was more surprised than Cliff. All that has blown over, and I'm sure Cliff has been back to Bear's room several times since.
Doc