Video: Fighter shoves ref Goddard after refusing to release choke, gets DQ’d

Photo by Huw Fairclough/Getty images

This ref drives a hard bargain, and you’re not talking your way out of these shenanigans.

If veteran MMA referee Marc Goddard hasn’t seen it all, he’s certainly a great deal close to it.

At this weekend’s UAE Warriors 12 event, Ahmed Al Darmaki fought Bogdan Kirilenko in a featherweight bout, and the Abu Dhabi native Al Darmaki caught Kirilenko as he rolled over off his back to sink in a devastating rear naked choke to seal the deal. It was a great way to finish a fight with a fair amount of bite on the choke.

But a problem arose as Al Darmaki didn’t let go of the choke despite Goddard issuing verbal commands, putting his hands on him, and actively attempting to pry Al Darmaki off of Kirilenko. Once finally separated, Al Darmaki became verbally combative and pushed the ref a few times as Goddard attempted to pull him aside and lecture him regarding the matter.

You can see the footage for yourself right here, courtesy of Twitter fight sommelier Caposa:

It gets better, because he goes on to celebrate his win by climbing the fence. It’s rather adorable, because he doesn’t realize this whole time that his actions have led to him being disqualified, handing Kirilenko a win instead. Once he comes down he starts adding up that he’s not quite victorious and is informed of the situation.

Al Darmaki attempts to apologize in a half-hearted manner, which Goddard simply wasn’t having. Damage was already done, the call had already been made. In the words of my friend Ricky from second grade, “no backsies“. He realizes that this won’t bear fruit and decides to curse at Goddard and walk off, because showing some class is only window dressing once you’ve flubbed it this bad.

It’s perfectly understandable for a fighter to get excited during a finish and really want to make the ending definitive, especially a fighter that came into this fight with a sub-.500 record. Not only does he put a target on himself for being difficult to work with (as some organizations aren’t fond of signing fighters with incidents like this), and ends up with a record of 2-5. Not to say he won’t be booked elsewhere again, just that it’s not the kind of thing that has promoters jumping at the chance to sign a fighter, especially someone that’s not looking like quite the prospect.

But at least Goddard is handling the matter in good spirits, remaining diplomatic to the end:

So there you have it kids, don’t be nice to the boss just because you’re in trouble. Try to be nice even when you don’t have to in the first place, and you can also avoid problems like this.