Veteran referee Mario Yamasaki will oversee November’s UFC 167 main event, which features a welterweight title fight between champion Georges St-Pierre and challenger Johny Hendricks. Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) officials issued the assignment during a Thursday meeting in Las Vegas.
Additionally, the trio of judges selected to score the bout cageside are Sal D’Amato, Glenn Trowbridge and Tony Weeks.
UFC 167, the UFC’s 20th anniversary show, is scheduled to take place November 16, 2013 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
A winner of 11 straight fights, St-Pierre (24-2) will attempt the ninth consecutive defense of his UFC title against the hard-charging Hendricks (15-1), a former two-time NCAA Division I champion wrestler with tremendous knockout power in his left hand.
Yamasaki is one of the most veteran referees in the game, having overseen bouts since the 1990’s. St-Pierre vs. Hendricks will mark his third UFC main event assignment of 2013, following Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva II and Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira II.
Combined, the three judges assigned to UFC 167’s main event have scored 23 UFC events thus far in 2013 — D’Amato (14), Trowbridge (5) and Weeks (4).
D’Amato has been on the dissenting end of three split decisions in 2013 (Kelvin Gastelum vs. Uriah Hall, Ed Herman vs. Trevor Smith, and Raphael Assuncao vs. T.J. Dillashaw), while Trowbridge and Weeks have each been on the dissenting end of one split decision (Takeya Mizugaki vs. Erik Perez and Dennis Bermudez vs. Max Holloway, respectively).