WSOF 17: “Shields vs. Foster” took place last night from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV., featuring former Strikeforce champion and UFC alumni Jake Shields against another fellow UFC veteran Brian Foster.
The winner of their contest would go on to challenge Rousimar Palhares for the welterweight title at a later date, and despite the slow start, Shields scored his second consecutive submission win. He’s now 2-0 since being fired from the UFC:
(Photo via Getty)
Did you forget there was a WSOF event on last night? It’s okay, so did the guy on the left … (all GIFS courtesy of ZombieProphet):
WSOF 17: “Shields vs. Foster” took place last night from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV., featuring former Strikeforce champion and UFC alumni Jake Shields against another fellow UFC veteran Brian Foster.
The winner of their contest would go on to challenge Rousimar Palhares for the welterweight title at a later date, and despite the slow start, Shields scored his second consecutive submission win. He’s now 2-0 since being fired from the UFC:
Shields didn’t play nice in his post-fight interview when asked about the champion, stating he was “a dirty fighter” and that he’s going to “whoop his ass,” too. Apart from that, the event was rather slow, with a few notable occurrences. After all, every MMA media member devoted their Saturday night to a heavyweight boxing fight featuring Bermane Stiverne vs. Deontay Wilder, which also took place in Las Vegas.
Joe Condon hit one hell of a Hail Mary, choking out Johnny Nunez with under one minute left in their co-main event contest. The guillotine was pretty freaking nasty, to say the least (that’s not Brian Cobb, though … he was injured on a treadmill):
Bryson Hansen defeated Rudy Morales in a dud of a fight, minus the fact that Morales was cut in the first round and bled all over the place. This is an early candidate for GIF of the year, presumably titled, “Look Ma! I’m actually not roadkill:”
Danny Davis Jr. defeated Adam Cella via unanimous decision, but he was lucky to not get disqualified for a Steven Gerrard-style bullet to Cella’s cranium:
On the preliminary card, Jordan Rinaldi scored a sweet submission over Soslan Abanokov earlier in the evening, submitting the latter with an americana:
And finally, apart from the other uneventful fights, the torrid theme music, interviews in between fights, shitty video players MMA sites still have the patience for, and a ring announcer named Jazz Securo, referee Kim Winslow really dropped the ball by letting Trey Williams hold onto his anaconda choke for way too long and nearly killed Jamie Point in the process. Point’s stiff, cold body and long stare is downright harrowing:
WSOF 17 QUICK RESULTS:
Main Card:
Jake Shields def. Brian Foster via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:51 of R1
Joe Condon def. Johnny Nunez via submission (guillotine choke) at 4:22 of R3
Krasimir Mladenov def. Brendan Kornberger via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Bryson Hansen def. Rudy Morales via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-26, 30-27)
Danny Davis Jr. def. Adam Cella via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
Preliminary Card
Jordan Rinaldi def. Soslan Abanokov via submission (armbar) at 3:02 of R3
Donavon Frelow def. Taylor McCorriston via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Trey Williams def. Jamie Point via technical submission (anaconda choke) at 3:52 of R1
What can you say about MMA referee Kim Winslow? Is she legitimately the worst, or does Cecil Peoples still rank below her? Watch all of Kim’s late stoppages, early stoppages, questionable stand-ups, and other assorted failures in this lowlight reel, and tell us what you think.
What can you say about MMA referee Kim Winslow? Is she legitimately the worst, or does Cecil Peoples still rank below her? Watch all of Kim’s late stoppages, early stoppages, questionable stand-ups, and other assorted failures in this lowlight reel, and tell us what you think.
(If you’re short on time, this image sums everything up pretty well.)
To say that Miesha Tate has been unhappy with the outcome of her Fight of the Night earning scrap against Cat Zingano during the TUF 17 Finale is putting things mildly. Despite controlling the first two rounds of the fight, Tate was eventually knocked out in the third round by Zingano. Tate immediately expressed that she felt that referee Kim Winslow stopped the fight early, but with Cat Zingano being sort-of busy for the time being, an immediate rematch has pretty much been out of the question.
That hasn’t exactly stopped Tate from trying. Yesterday, Tate posted a picture of herself in order to further demonstrate why she felt that the fight was stopped early, claiming that she wants a rematch against Zingano with a different referee overseeing the bout. Via Facebook:
“Post fight pic taken Monday, you all are wondering about my nose, its fine still a little swollen but im going to get the suspension lifted ASAP, and I will be back! Cant help my nose bleeds a lot still frustrated at the stoppage, think the ref freaked because of blood when she should have been focusing on the fact that I was still perfectly coherent and shooting for a takedown after two solid knees landed I was still in the fight and up on the score cards. Can’t pay enogh respect to Cat she’s a warrior & I’d love the honor of fighting her in the future again but NOT with Kim Winslow as the ref”
(If you’re short on time, this image sums everything up pretty well.)
To say that Miesha Tate has been unhappy with the outcome of her Fight of the Night earning scrap against Cat Zingano during the TUF 17 Finale is putting things mildly. Despite controlling the first two rounds of the fight, Tate was eventually knocked out in the third round by Zingano. Tate immediately expressed that she felt that referee Kim Winslow stopped the fight early, but with Cat Zingano being sort-of busy for the time being, an immediate rematch has pretty much been out of the question.
That hasn’t exactly stopped Tate from trying. Yesterday, Tate posted a picture of herself in order to further demonstrate why she felt that the fight was stopped early, claiming that she wants a rematch against Zingano with a different referee overseeing the bout. Via Facebook:
“Post fight pic taken Monday, you all are wondering about my nose, its fine still a little swollen but im going to get the suspension lifted ASAP, and I will be back! Cant help my nose bleeds a lot still frustrated at the stoppage, think the ref freaked because of blood when she should have been focusing on the fact that I was still perfectly coherent and shooting for a takedown after two solid knees landed I was still in the fight and up on the score cards. Can’t pay enogh respect to Cat she’s a warrior & I’d love the honor of fighting her in the future again but NOT with Kim Winslow as the ref”
Believe it or not, Kim Winslow didn’t exactly take the implication that she sucks at her job lying down. Despite being unable to specifically comment on the fight, Winslow issued a statement to US Combat Sports explaining her rationale behind her decision to stop fights this week. Via USCS:
“I will tell you what I tell ALL my fighters in the prefight one on ones. If I say ‘fight back’ you are in imminent danger of me stopping your fight and you have to give me a reason not to. If you respond to the command and show that you can intelligently defend yourself I will let it continue whether or not your attempts are successful. It is on you to continue to try until you are out of danger or the round has ended. When you stop attempting to get out of the situation or just go back to what got you warned in the first place it’s your way of letting me know you have had enough and I am coming in to stop it. How much time I give you is always dependent on the amount of damage you are taking. Safety is the first priority and it’s my job to make sure you come back to fight another day if you choose to. ”
Whether or not Tate was “perfectly coherent” after eating those knees from Cat Zingano is debatable. Tate may claim she felt fine – and Kim Winslow certainly has a history of questionable stoppages – but it’s easy to see why this fight was stopped when it was. For what it’s worth, Dana White – who isn’t exactly shy about criticizing incompetent referees after questionable stoppages – thought that the stoppage was fair as well.
Was this fight yet another early stoppage on Kim Winslow’s resume, or did she make the right decision stopping the action when she did?
(We’re going to have a clean, fair fight. Obey my commands at all times. If you don’t, I’mma jam this mic so deep in your eye socket you can hear yourself think. / Pic Props: The Fight Network)
There are only three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and dreadful refereeing in mixed martial arts. With tax day behind us and a clean bill of health from the doc, the only thing left to avoid is blunders like those that occurred this past Saturday night at The Ultimate Fighter Season 17 Finale at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The offenses ranged from unrepentant fence-grabbing to controversial stoppages. (Surprisingly, we’re not talking about Steve Mazagatti this time.) Sadly, this might have been prevented if Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer would squash his beef with the godfather of MMA referees, “Big” John McCarthy.
What’s the beef about, you ask? To hear McCarthy tell it, Kizer got upset and took his ball home when UFC’s first head referee said the same thing the fans have been saying for years. Via MMAFighting:
“I thought he was putting some people in positions to judge fights that didn’t understand actually what the fighters were doing, and that’s wrong,” McCarthy explained. “I said that and I stood by it. He got mad, and from that, he has never licensed me again. And that’s okay. That’s his choice. I’m not going to cry about it and worry about it.”
McCarthy apologized publicly to Kizer and three years ago resubmitted his application for licensure. Not surprisingly, he hasn’t heard back, other than an ominous note stating that his “application will stay on file.”
(We’re going to have a clean, fair fight. Obey my commands at all times. If you don’t, I’mma jam this mic so deep in your eye socket you can hear yourself think. / Pic Props: The Fight Network)
There are only three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and dreadful refereeing in mixed martial arts. With tax day behind us and a clean bill of health from the doc, the only thing left to avoid is blunders like those that occurred this past Saturday night at The Ultimate Fighter Season 17 Finale at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The offenses ranged from unrepentant fence-grabbing to controversial stoppages. (Surprisingly, we’re not talking about Steve Mazagatti this time.) Sadly, this might have been prevented if Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer would squash his beef with the godfather of MMA referees, “Big” John McCarthy.
What’s the beef about, you ask? To hear McCarthy tell it, Kizer got upset and took his ball home when UFC’s first head referee said the same thing the fans have been saying for years. Via MMAFighting:
“I thought he was putting some people in positions to judge fights that didn’t understand actually what the fighters were doing, and that’s wrong,” McCarthy explained. “I said that and I stood by it. He got mad, and from that, he has never licensed me again. And that’s okay. That’s his choice. I’m not going to cry about it and worry about it.”
McCarthy apologized publicly to Kizer and three years ago resubmitted his application for licensure. Not surprisingly, he hasn’t heard back, other than an ominous note stating that his “application will stay on file.”
Case in point: Maximo Blanco vs. Sam Sicilia. Warnings were given and warnings were dismissed. Repeatedly. During the early preliminary tilt, referee Kim Winslow was heard several times warning Blanco about grabbing the fence. In the first round alone, the Venezuelan latched his fingers onto the chain-link cage three or four times, each receiving another warning. To prove she meant business, Winslow walked over to Blacno’s corner after the round to reprimand him for his blatant defiance of the law and inform him that any future infraction would incur the maximum penalty of the law. Just kidding, she just made another empty threat, which was immediately ignored.
As a father of small children, I can attest that empty threats are easily detectable and rarely heeded by even the youngest of rule breakers. Thankfully, they haven’t stumbled upon former CP pen monkey Chad Dundas‘s inimitable article on why you should always cheat. (It’s scary just how right he is.) In the end, the judges awarded Maximo Blanco a unanimous decision victory with a final scorecard of 29-28. Had a point been deducted for the unabashed fence grabbing, the fight would’ve been a draw at worse, a knockout/submission finish at best.
Not content with being “one and done,” Winslow’s rap sheet grew in the third round of the Fight of the Night tilt between undefeated Cat Zingano and former Strikeforce champion Miesha Tate. This time the former air-traffic controller made her presence felt when she prematurely halted the action instead of letting the fight unfold organically, causing her refereeing to come under scrutiny once again. Don’t even get me started about the legality of some of those knees either. Whether you like it or not, the course of the women’s division has been altered forever.
The implications for the winner of the UFC’s second women fight in history were tantamount with being cast in the next installment of The Fast and the Furious; just ask Gina Carano. Fame, fortune, and all the exposure a girl could ever want — all wrapped up and ready to go. All you have to do is nail the audition. The winner of Tate vs. Zingano was promised a coaching gig on The Ultimate Fighter season 18 and an automatic title shot against the Queen of the Cage, Ronda Rousey (read: three months of free exposure on FS1 and an abundance of sponsorship opportunities). While I’m genuinely happy for Zingano, I can’t help but think that maybe Tate got jipped.
Entering the final frame ahead on two judges’ scorecards, “Cupcake” was set to just coast finish strong against the first mother to ever compete inside the Octagon. Zingano went full “momma bear” and started to beat the living daylights out of Tate. An appropriate subtitle for this Cat fight would’ve been ‘There Will Be Blood.’ The former champ’s face was a bloody mess, but the rest of her was still in the fight when Winslow stepped in too soon. Tate said so herself at the post-fight press conference:
“[Winslow] came in and told me before we left the locker room that, ‘If I warn you to move, all I need to know is that you want to stay in the fight.’ And I felt that I did that. I got from the bottom, up. I got kneed a few times on the way, tried to shoot another shot, and the fight was stopped. I didn’t feel like I was out of the fight.”
Okay, so what fighter wouldn’t protest in this situation? Maybe the outcome of the fight wouldn’t have changed, maybe it would’ve. Think about it, though: How many times have we witnessed amazing comebacks from fighters in similar situations? Heck, one ref even let Cheick Kongo continue fighting after being KO’d twice by Pat Barry. Tate’s come-from-behind win against Julie Kedzie comes to mind as well. When will we learn that sometimes you need to let a fighter keep fighting?
When Chris Tognoni was assigned to referee Gabriel Gonzaga and Travis Browne engaging in fisticuffs, I didn’t think anything of it, but I should’ve expected nothing more than was delivered. I mean, this was the guy who stood up Yushin Okami despite having side control of Alan Belcher at UFC 155. Just 71 seconds into the opening round, an unconscious Gonzaga crashes to the canvas after absorbing six consecutive hellbows to the skull. Kudos to “Hapa” for his ability to cultivate such ferocity with his back against the cage and end the fight from a defensive position. After watching the replay, you can see that the first two shots were legal, landing to the side of the head. The last three… well, not so much.
The fight hinges on the third elbow, whether or not it was legal, and if it even matters at all. Gonzaga’s camp thinks it does, hence their appeal of the ruling of the contest. As my colleague Seth Falvo explained, “… since Gonzaga was already out when they landed, they didn’t potentially affect the outcome of the fight. The NSAC’s ruling on the third elbow will more than likely decide the outcome of this case.”
In aftermath of the short scrap, I “overheard” a conversation between “Big” John McCarthy himself and former UFC fighter Kenny Florian in which McCarthy admits that legal shots put Gonzaga to sleep. So this should be a non-issue, right? Not for the Brazilian’s wife and children who may someday have to strain to understand the mumblings of the man they love dearly. Nor for his brain cells that took unnecessary abuse after the fight was all but over, but not officially called off because the ref was dangerously out of position. In a perfect world, Tognoni would’ve been closer to the action so as to better see what did or did not land in the mohawk area of “Napao”‘s head and at what point the hairy man lost consciousness. In a perfect world, I would be arranging to fly to Cali this weekend. You see where this is going.
MMA referees have the pivotal role of protecting the fighters while maintaining a fight’s integrity. Some do a better job of this than others. However, some perform so terribly they are altering the course of history, stealing money out of the fighter’s pockets, and more importantly, putting the fighter’s health and well-being at enormous risk. And it’s happening on such a consistent basis that corrective action must be taken. All refs should be held more accountable for their actions and properly educated on the intricacies of the great sport of mixed martial arts. Some, though, should be treated like War Machine at a holiday mixer, spit bag and all.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission is guilty of allowing inept people like Winslow, Mazagatti, and Tognoni to protect fighters in the cage instead of utilizing the well-versed John McCarthy — and all because of Keith Kizer’s bruised ego. Unfortunately, we’re not likely to see any change until someone dies in the cage. What then? Will Nevada concede its willful negligence of fighter safety in blackballing a man who has been in the sport since the foundations?
Having reffed thousands of fights, McCarthy is a man fighters trust and respect. He’s a guy they know will make the right call, whether it goes in their favor or not. How many other refs can say that? If allowed to work in the Silver State this past weekend, there would be less controversy swirling around the fight card because the action in the Octagon would’ve been handled appropriately. The NSAC owes it to the fans, promotions, fighters, and most of all themselves, to use the best referees at their disposal in order to ensure fighter safety. Anything less is criminal.
(It was later revealed that Mazzagatti had been planning to kill Fitch for years and was simply waiting for the right moment to pounce. Photo via Tracy Lee at Yahoo Sports.)
It’s been a pretty slow couple of days in the MMA world, Potato Nation. How should you know this? Because the news that’s being dropped off on our (imaginary) desks by our (imaginary) bosses is some bullshit about a fitting issue at WSoF 2 that resulted in Andrei Arlovski wearing those UFC gloves….
(It was later revealed that Mazzagatti had been planning to kill Fitch for years and was simply waiting for the right moment to pounce. Photo via Tracy Lee at Yahoo Sports.)
It’s been a pretty slow couple of days in the MMA world, Potato Nation. How should you know this? Because the news that’s being dropped off on our (imaginary) desks by our (imaginary) bosses is some bullshit about a fitting issue at WSoF 2 that resulted in Andrei Arlovski wearing those UFC gloves….
As if the video wasn’t great enough on its own, the segue music choices are downright brilliant. “It’s Too Late” by Carole King is Mazzagatti’s “Dust in the Wind.”
(I know, Kim. These fights make us want to puke, too.)
Sometimes, that “third man in the cage” can be a fighter’s worst enemy. And so, we thank CP reader Ryan Barnhart for providing us with this week’s CagePotato Roundtabletopic: “What was the worst referee blunder in MMA history?” Since we’ve already covered judging fiascos, it only seemed fair to dump some hate on the sport’s officiating as well. If you have a topic-suggestion for a future Roundtable column, please send it to [email protected], and let your voices be heard in the comments section…
I’ve already lost this Roundtable debate. The travesty captured in the video above isn’t a “blunder” at all — it’s a referee-sanctioned homicide. At first glance you spot the black slacks and tie and assume this official to be a professional of the highest order; only later do you realize that he’s a struggling mortician simply there to drum up more business for himself.
Rogerio da Silva and Eric Venutti met in the second round of the ‘Brazilian Vale Tudo Fighting 2‘ tournament. Not only does the lard-ass at the helm of the match allow his own indecisiveness to place a fighter in jeopardy, he insists that an unnecessary finishing blow be delivered to a fighter too rocked to realize that he’s still engaged in a fist fight, Mortal Kombat-style.
It’s easy to look at the date of this event — May 31, 1996 — and dismiss it as the sort of thing that happened in those early days of human cockfighting. But keep in mind that by this time the UFC had ten events under its black belt, and Brazil was no stranger to the fight biz either. Even under a looser rule set, previous fights in the same organization had ended via judges decision and TKO due to cuts, so civility was not entirely lost on these people. This lone act makes everything Cecil Peoples has done look completely acceptable. Almost.
(I know, Kim. These fights make us want to puke, too.)
Sometimes, that “third man in the cage” can be a fighter’s worst enemy. And so, we thank CP reader Ryan Barnhart for providing us with this week’s CagePotato Roundtabletopic: “What was the worst referee blunder in MMA history?” Since we’ve already covered judging fiascos, it only seemed fair to dump some hate on the sport’s officiating as well. If you have a topic-suggestion for a future Roundtable column, please send it to [email protected], and let your voices be heard in the comments section…
I’ve already lost this Roundtable debate. The travesty captured in the video above isn’t a “blunder” at all — it’s a referee-sanctioned homicide. At first glance you spot the black slacks and tie and assume this official to be a professional of the highest order; only later do you realize that he’s a struggling mortician simply there to drum up more business for himself.
Rogerio da Silva and Eric Venutti met in the second round of the ‘Brazilian Vale Tudo Fighting 2‘ tournament. Not only does the lard-ass at the helm of the match allow his own indecisiveness to place a fighter in jeopardy, he insists that an unnecessary finishing blow be delivered to a fighter too rocked to realize that he’s still engaged in a fist fight, Mortal Kombat-style.
It’s easy to look at the date of this event — May 31, 1996 — and dismiss it as the sort of thing that happened in those early days of human cockfighting. But keep in mind that by this time the UFC had ten events under its black belt, and Brazil was no stranger to the fight biz either. Even under a looser rule set, previous fights in the same organization had ended via judges decision and TKO due to cuts, so civility was not entirely lost on these people. This lone act makes everything Cecil Peoples has done look completely acceptable. Almost.
The worst officiating blunder in MMA history has to be allowing Steve Mazzagatti to carry a reffing license. Yeah, I get that he’s a nice guy or whatever, but when you’re talking about the Hall of Shame, Mazzagatti and his moustache are inaugural members. His resume of failure is uglier than Tim Sylvia in drag, and that’s a picture that no one wants to paint for you.
I will, because no one should be doomed to repeat this kind of history:
At UFC 92, Mazzagatti played lookout while Cheick Kongo bounced Moustapha al Turk’s head off the canvas like he was trying to get to the prize hidden inside. (And seriously, if you’re a fighter in the cage with Cheick Kongo and Steve Mazzagatti, somebody hates you. It may be God, Joe Silva, Dana White, or possibly all three, but you were not meant to have a good day.) Kongo sliced al Turk open with elbows on the ground, and then got in some solid practice with hammerfists, hooks, and straight punches from guard before the Mazz, daydreaming about teaching Muay Thai to RoboCop, registered what was going on and stopped the bout. DFW has some choice words about Mazzagatti after the fight, suggesting that someone capture the inept ref, wrap him in chains and fire him into the heart of a black hole — for the good of MMA.
Brock Lesnar complained that Mazzagatti was unreasonably quick to stand up his fight with Frank Mir at UFC 91 when Brock was winning, and also for not being quick enough with the Mazzagatti dive when Brock was tapping to a kneebar.
But those guys are known for being free with their opinions. But then consider that Kenny Florian went on ESPN and said that Mazzagatti seemed to have problems judging when to end a fight. Ben Rothwell agreed, after Mazzagatti managed to be both too late and too early in stopping his fight with Cain Velasquez. Rothwell had been KO’d by Velasquez, but Cain followed up the KO with enough punches to the face that Rothwell rebooted and started moving again. Then when Rothwell is pinned against the cage and in the process of standing, Moustache Mazz calls the fight.
He’s stopped fights early (James Irvin vs Houston Alexander), he’s stopped fights late (Yves Edwards vs Josh Thomson), he’s stopped fights so late that the fighters themselves thought he was out of his goddamn mind (Cris Cyborg vs Shayna Baszler). He once tried to stop a fight with jazz hands, and Jason McDonald was forced to ruin whole sections of Joe Doerksen’s childhood memories until Mazz actually stopped the fight. Hell, he once asked Matt Hamill if he was ok to continue, then called the fight when Hamill didn’t respond quickly enough. Small problem there: Matt Hamill is deaf. And yet still, none of this is even Mazz’s best worst.
What absolutely takes the cake was the fight Mazzagatti reffed at UFC between Anthony “Rumble” Johnson and Kevin Burns. Burns, apparently trying to highlight his black belt in Tiger Claw Kung Fu, came at Johnson with multiple techniques targeting his eyes. Mazzagatti was on top of the action, noted the danger to Johnson’s peepers, and warned Burns to lay off the Three Stooges routine. Burns just barked at him and said “Whyioughta…” and went back to threaten the retinas. After four separate warnings from Mazzgatti, Burns finally landed his mythical Eyepoke of Doom, sending Johnson reeling in agony (and partial blindness).
So here’s your moment, Steve: you’ve observed Burns attacking with splayed fingers in the vicinity of Johnson’s eyes and given him FOUR. SEPARATE. WARNINGS. Johnson is complaining about another eyepoke and is unable to continue. His eye, while not actually hanging outside of his face with lightning bolts coming out of it, does appear to be red (Rumble would require surgery and miss six months of action). What’s the call? No contest? Disqualification? Go to a judges’ decision?
If I told you that Kevin Fucking Burns won via TKO at 3:45 of the third round, should you even be surprised?
The referee is there to enforce the Unified Rules of MMA, but more importantly, the ref is there to protect the fighters. Not only did Yves Lavigne not do that while overseeing Matt “The Immortal” Brown vs. Pete “Drago” Sell at UFC 96, but Lavigne seemed hell-bent on getting Sell killed.
We all knew when this scrap was announced that the chances of it going the distance were about as likely as Roy Nelson coming back from the buffet line with a salad. All suspicions were realized within the first ten seconds of the bout when the self-described “technical brawler” Brown opened up with a pair of kicks and a superman punch that all landed. A big high kick clubbed Sell’s neck/head and a left-right combination deposited “Drago” to the canvas like a sack of potatoes at the 18 second mark. Yves Lavigne quickly stepped in and put his arms around Brown’s midsection to keep him from jumping on top of Sell and doing more damage. In the split-second that Lavigne stepped in between the fighters, Sell got back to his feet, although he was clearly hurt. This is when Yves Lavigne shit the proverbial bed and allowed the vicious beating to continue.
First, Lavigne stopped Brown from continuing his initial onslaught by grabbing him around the waist – fight is over. Second, Pete Sell was obviously on “Queer Street” and needed to be saved – fight should have been stopped. Brown was visibly pissed and did not want to dish out any more punishment but what was he supposed to do? The Immortal went so far as to twice give Lavigne the arms-outstretched “What the hell are you doing?” gesture, but Lavigne let it all play out in front of a packed arena and millions watching on television.
I remember when this went down and I can not explain the sheer pandemonium from my friends screaming like Apollo Creed’s wife just before Dolph Lundgren sent Apollo to his maker. I literally thought that we were going to see Sell beaten to death that night and if it had happened, I believe that Yves Lavigne should be in prison.
“I did let Mr. Sell take maybe — not maybe — I let him take a beating for absolutely nothing. So I didn’t do my job properly. So basically, I screwed up. I screwed up and I’m going to learn from it and try not to do it again…I’m going to make sure not to do it again.”
While Yves Lavigne tries to learn from his mistake, he is lucky that the Sell Family didn’t have to learn to live without Pete.
Before I can determine the worst referee blunder in MMA history, I need to first define “referee blunder.” Are we talking about a terrible stand-up that possibly changed the outcome of a fight? Are we talking about a dangerously late stoppage? Can I just write “CECIL PEOPLES SUX, LOL!”, cue my theme music and call it a day?
…I can’t? In that case, allow me to choose the fight I’m pretty sure Cecil Peoples watched in order to refine his officiating techniques: Gilbert Yvel vs. Carlos Barreto.
The fight begins predictably enough, with Barreto earning an immediate takedown and Yvel in trouble. Yet as the fighters get tangled in the ropes, the referee makes the decision not to reposition them, but rather stand the fight back up entirely. Shortly after the questionable stand up, we see Yvel knock out Barreto, and the fight gets waived off — for a few seconds at least.
Those of you who have been here a while may remember the ‘What the fuck is your problem?’ rule for determining whether or not a fight was stopped too soon. Barreto tries to employ it, even though he’s clearly struggling to make eye contact with the official. While a more responsible ref would have ignored Carlos Barreto and his cornermen, this official decides to go against everything he forgot to learn in training and restart the fight. Seconds later, we have Yvel defeating Barreto for the second time that night and terrible referees all over the planet took note: Flying knees DO finish fights.
God Damn you, Dan Miragliotta. God damn you for making me defend James Thompson.
The fact is, I had never seen James Thompson’s chin hold up to anything, be it a jab or a passing breeze, until his fight with Kimbo Slice at EliteXC: Primetime. For reasons that I am going to attribute to black magic, Thompson showed up with a piece of granite for a chin that night, and was rewarded by having perhaps the most legitimate victory of his career (next to his win over Don Frye, of course) stolen from him by Miragliotta. But worse even than Miragliotta’s third-round standing TKO stoppage of the fight were the implications behind the stoppage itself. As we all know, EliteXC was living and dying by the Kimbo Slice brand name, and were willing to do anything to protect their investment. Though that mentality works in professional wrestling, putting all your eggs in one basket — especially one with shit cardio and zero ground game — is a recipe for disaster in MMA.
Knowing now how corrupt a promotion EliteXC was, it doesn’t seem too hard to imagine that everyone was in on the fix except James Thompson. Poor, hapless James Thompson. I hate to lob accusations at veteran official like Dan Mirogliotta, but let’s just say I would be more shocked to find out that he wasn’t paid off for this fight. Aside from the pathetic stoppage itself, there were several moments in the Thompson/Slice “fight” that one can only describe as “fishy.” Take the first round, for instance, when Thompson locked in a standing guillotine on Slice within the opening minutes. Kimbo appeared to tap out, but all of a sudden, the camera pulled away to a shot of the fight from damn near across the stadium. A simple production error? I think not. As if that wasn’t odd enough, the second round was capped off by Thompson landing over 100,000 elbows to Slice’s dome, all while Miragliotta was apparently ordering a cheesy pretzel from the nearest concession stand. Granted, the elbows were barely strong enough to crunch a Bugle, but Slice was clearly not defending himself, and that should have been all it took to end the fight then and there.
Entering the third round, everyone from Gary Shaw to Kimbo himself knew that something dramatic had to be done. This is where Jared Shaw came in. Using his Buffalo Wild Wings beeper, he relayed the following message to Miragliotta: KIMBO DIES, YOU DIE. Simple, yet effective. So Miragliotta patiently waited for Slice to land any significant offense whatsoever and pounced like a homeless man on a Sacajawea dollar. The fact that one of Kimbo’s punches managed to make Thompson’s ear explode was just icing on the cake. Miragliotta stepped in, Kimbo got the victory, and I sat speechless on the couch of my now ex-girlfriend trying to convince her that what we had just witnessed was actually a legitimate sport. The aforementioned “WTF is your problem?!” rule was not only warranted, by my only reaction for such an injustice. Thank God Thompson would never have to deal with that kind of blatant favoritism ever again.
Ben Goldstein
Since so many of my colleagues picked TKO-related reffing moments, I decided to look for something submission-related. But after some time spent with a stopwatch trying to figure out whether Kim Couture or Nik Fekete suffered more brain-damage, I came across this all-time classic, which took place at Turkey’s first MMA event last year, and was overseen by Turkey’s blindest moron.
If you’re a referee, I suppose you can be forgiven for not realizing that a fighter has lost consciousness before he had a chance to tap. (I mean, at some point you have to realize that hey, that guy isn’t moving around much, and there’s probably a reason for it, but whatever, we can’t all be Josh Rosenthal.) But how about when a fighter does tap, and you’re right there to see it? Get a load of this clown taking a knee right next to the action, looking for a sign — any sign really — that he should stop the fight. The guy on the bottom, furiously tapping? No, too subtle. Dude is waiting for a thunderbolt fom God Himself, or whatever the hell they worship in Turkey.
Eventually, the winning fighter just gets up, knowing that the fight has been over for about seven seconds. And what does the ref do? He taps the mat. Good job, buddy. You’re about as useless as a hat full of busted assholes.
(Photo via Getty)
