White blames Commission’s inexperience for poor officiating

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UFC president Dana White gives his take on some of the controversial officiating at UFC 247.

Officiating for UFC 247 came under fire, especially after the result of the main event fight between Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes. While many had Reyes winning three rounds to two, the final decision had “Bones” winning a unanimous decision verdict and a 49-46 tally from one judge.

UFC president Dana White is known to express his post-fight sentiments, but for tonight’s case, he is pointing to what he feels is inexperience on the Texas Athletic Commission’s end when it comes to big fights.

“One of the problems with Texas is that these guys don’t have a lot of big fight experience,” White told TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter in a post-fight interview. “And (VP of Regulatory Affairs) Marc Ratner and (Chief Business Officer) Hunter Campbell need to work with the Texas Athletic Commission to try to make these things better.”

White did stress how important each opportunity it is for each young fighter, only to fall victim to poor officiating. But he also conceded to the fact that it will be something they’ll be dealing with as part of the business.

“They have to realize what they take away from these guys, when they put people in there that, let’s just say don’t have the experience or maybe even the knowledge to be a part of these big fights,” White said.

“If you make it into the UFC, you don’t have to be at the Jon Jones, Dominick Reyes level of the fight. The first prelim of the night, these kids finally made it to the UFC,” he added. “And a lot is at stake. You cannot put the wrong people in this fights.

“Even with some of the reffing tonight. It’s one of these things that we’re always gonna battle.”

Joe Rogan and Dominick Cruz also claimed to have seen a judge take his attention off the Lauren Murphy-Andrea Lee fight at the prelims. Murphy ended up winning the fight via a controversial split decision.