UFC 149 was the first event to be held in Canada in 2012. Support for the UFC in Canada is surging, and the fans always bring enthusiasm and high spirits to the events. The head of the UFC hope to create a phenomenon there, declaring MMA a top sport in Canada, right after hockey. Events like UFC 149, however, deteriorate the high potential of the sport.
The card was in upheaval from the start. Injury after injury caused numerous fighters to drop out, causing Joe Silva and Dana White to constantly make alterations. The performances at the event were lackluster, and didn’t generate nearly enough excitement to live up to their hype. And most notably, as Dana White notoriously complains about after events, the horrible jobs of the referees. Personally, nothing angers me more than bad calls or timing by the refs. If my favorite fighter loses due to a KO or a fair decision, he wasn’t the best man in the ring that night. But I become infuriated when I see a ref miscall a move, stop a bout too soon, or allow two fighters to wall and stall.
A huge mistake occurred during the first bout of the main event when Matt Riddle orchestrated a kick to Chris Clements’ body. It was completely legal, and Riddle could have potentially finished the fight. However, Josh Rosenthal, the referee for the fight, thought that the body kick was in fact a kick to the groin, and gave Clements time to recovery for the seemingly “illegal move.”
Dana White openly expressed his anger: “It’s a kick to the body, and Rosenthal jumps in the middle because he thought it was a kick to the groin,” White said. “Come on. You’re standing right there. Open your eyes. Pay attention – this is what you’re getting paid to do. You choose to do this. If you don’t want to do it 100 percent, don’t do it. Go do something else. The fight could’ve been ended right there. That’s a situation where he doesn’t see it, stops the action, gets half-assed in there instead of making a clear, decisive decision. And what if Riddle lost the fight after that at a point where he had him hurt to the body with a beautiful kick? And he jumps in the middle.”
Another main event bout between Cheick Kongo and Shawn Jordan created dissatisfaction among fans. Referee Yves Lavigne allowed the two fighters to stand in a clinch for the majority of three rounds without doing any work. The bout ended in a very lackluster decision win that generated a displeased audience. Perhaps the most aggravating referee mishap, was that of a preliminary bout between Ryan Jimmo and Anthony Perosh. Jimmo made his UFC debut Saturday night, and he had one memorable entrance. He knocked out Perosh in 7 seconds, a tie for the fastest knockout in UFC history. The mistake that was made was once again by referee Josh Rosenthal. He was a significant distance away from the fighters, and it took him longer to declare the official end of the fight. Had he been closer like he should have been, Jimmo could have had the record for the fastest knockout. In essence, Rosenthal’s mistake screwed Jimmo out of, hypothetically, the best UFC debut in history.
All in all, what does this mean for the sport? Dana White has stated numerous times that he has no jurisdiction over the calls of the referees or the referees in general. The promotion and state deal with the referees. But how long can the originally criticized sport handle such dissatisfaction by fans? Dana White knows the detrimental effects it has for the fans, and yet he is powerless. I feel as if the sport needs to have more competent referees, or ones that can at least make calls that are fair for the bout. The UFC, being a relatively new promotion in terms of sports, has been scrutinized in the past for numerous reasons, and current issues like this hurt their potentially growing fan base, and their attempt to revitalize the sport. Whatever actions are taken, something needs to be done, because Dana White has been advocating this problem for quite too long.
By: Emily Kapala