Ahead of his Octagon return this weekend in the main event of UFC Vegas 66, former heavyweight title challenger, Derrick Lewis has backed recent calls from former middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, for veteran referee, Steve Mazzagatti – or rather, Maserati to return to the Octagon in a refereeing capacity. Set to headline at the UFC […]
Ahead of his Octagon return this weekend in the main event of UFC Vegas 66, former heavyweight title challenger, Derrick Lewis has backed recent calls from former middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, for veteran referee, Steve Mazzagatti – or rather, Maserati to return to the Octagon in a refereeing capacity.
Set to headline at the UFC Apex facility this weekend against the surging, Serghei Spivac, Lewis will attempt to halt a run of two straight kncokout losses to both Tai Tuivasa, and most recently, Serghei Pavlovich, as he falters to the #7 in the official heavyweight rankings.
Featuring at UFC 277 back in July, Lewis was stopped by surging Russian contender, Pavlovich inside just 55 seconds of the opening round, before complaining with the stoppage dished out bu the Octagon official.
Similarly, and rather in jest, former middleweight champion, Adesanya, who lost his title to Alex Pereira at UFC 281 last weekend – joked how he would like to see controversial referee, Steve Mazzagatti return to officiating in the promotion, amid a lengthy run of late and egregious stoppages during his time in the Octagon.
Derrick Lewis calls for Steve ‘Maserati’ to return to officiating
Taking umbrage with the stoppage he was on the receiving end of against Pavlovich, fan-favorite knockout best, Derrick Lewis called for Mazzagatti – or rather, Maserati to return to officiating in the Octagon.
“I for sure should have won that fight, I believe I should have won that fight,” Derrick Lewis told assembled media ahead of UFC Vegas 66. “The gameplan that we had had for that fight – it should have been an easy fight for me. I’ve been down and out before. And I look at the (Tai) Tuivasa fight, I believe I was winning the fight, and stuff happens.”
“Just like old Izzy (Israel Adesanya) was saying, we need to bring Maserati (Steve Mazzagatti) back – what’s his name, Maserati? Mazzagatti – Maserati – the same guy. We need to bring that back, man, for real.”
The knockout outlier in the entire history of the UFC, in Lewis’ most recent professional victory, the New Orleans-born favorite stopped Chris Daukaus with a first round knockout back in December of last year. The stoppage came as Lewis’ whopping thirteenth knockout in the UFC – minting him as the most prolific KO artist in Octagon antiquity.
First, Mazzagatti deducted a point from Roger Zapata for an illegal “12-to-6” elbow during the “Sudden Victory” round of his fight against Ian Stephens. Though Zapata was warned about throwing 12-to-6 elbows before the point-deduction, the shot that actually led to the penalty was verrrrry questionable. (Skip to 0:54-0:58 in the above video and tell us what you think, then brace yourself for Team Penn assistant coach Mark Coleman roaring gibberish in anger.)
UFC president Dana White stormed out of the gym rather than watch the fight continue. If only it ended there, guys. If only. Here’s what happened next, as described by FightOpinion:
First, Mazzagatti deducted a point from Roger Zapata for an illegal “12-to-6″ elbow during the “Sudden Victory” round of his fight against Ian Stephens. Though Zapata was warned about throwing 12-to-6 elbows before the point-deduction, the shot that actually led to the penalty was verrrrry questionable. (Skip to 0:54-0:58 in the above video and tell us what you think, then brace yourself for Team Penn assistant coach Mark Coleman roaring gibberish in anger.)
UFC president Dana White stormed out of the gym rather than watch the fight continue. If only it ended there, guys. If only. Here’s what happened next, as described by FightOpinion:
“At the end of the third round, two of the judges had scored the round a 9-9 round but one judge scored it a 10-8 round in favor of Stephens. When Mazzagatti announced the winner of the fight, he raised Zapata’s hand and called him “Ian Zapata.” Everyone went crazy. Mazzagatti tried a do-over and said “Roger Zapata” but the UFC editors made sure to leave the mistake in. White blew a gasket and said it was impossible for the judges to give Zapata the win given that he lost a point in the third round. Dana claims that since only one judge declared a winner after the third round that the judges were asked to pick an overall winner (PRIDE-style) and they picked Zapata.”
During his Wednesday appearance on UFC Tonight before the episode aired, Dana White said that the TUF fiasco resulted in some positive changes within the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Though he kept his language vague, keep in mind that Mazzagatti has yet to work a UFC card in 2014, and former NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer resigned at the beginning of this year. To put it another way, people might have lost their jobs over a goddamned episode of TUF. As if we need another reason to put this show out of its misery…
If there’s anyone that Dana White gets pleasure out of verbally tearing down in the media morethan Roy Nelson, it’s Steve Mazzagatti, the (formerly) porn-stached, cool as a cucumber veteran UFC official who has given us such avant-garde decisions as “Eye Poke Equals a TKO,” “Flying Head Kick? 40 More Punches to Convince Me” and “Tap 10 Times For Assistance.” The Baldfather has stated on numerous occasions that he doesn’t think Mazzagatti should even be watching MMA — which is all the more astounding when you consider all the crazy shit DW has said and done to try and sell a pay-per-view before — and even gone as far as to unofficially dub Mazzagatti “The Worst Referee in the History of Fighting.” In a world where this was allowed to happen, that’s a pretty bold claim.
As it turns out, Mazzagatti found himself at the center of controversy once again last weekend when he basically handed over his reffing duties to Josh Burkman during his WSOF 3 clash with Jon Fitch. After clipping Fitch early (like somebody here predicted he would), Burkman locked in a tight guillotine that put Fitch to sleep just over 40 seconds into their headlining bout. Burkman then proceeded to roll his unconscious opponent over and stand over him triumphantly before Mazzagatti decided to step in. It was perhaps the first walk-off submission in MMA History, and for some reason, you all are pissed about it.
Although White and Fitch have been involved in a war of words ever since the AKA product was released from the UFC, at the end of the day, it’s safe to assume that White wishes no ill will towards the former title contender. And being that Mazzagatti is higher up on White’s hit list than Fitch, the UFC Prez recently laid into the veteran ref for nearly 10 straight minutes at the UFC 161 post-fight media scrum. It was, quite honestly, the harshest takedown we have seen since Neal Page’s “Chatty Cathy” criticism of Del Griffith.
We’ve placed the full video of Dana’s rant above. After the jump, we’re going flush our last remaining scrap of credibility down the toilet in an attempt to do the unthinkable: defend Steve Mazzagatti. We know, we know.
If there’s anyone that Dana White gets pleasure out of verbally tearing down in the media morethan Roy Nelson, it’s Steve Mazzagatti, the (formerly) porn-stached, cool as a cucumber veteran UFC official who has given us such avant-garde decisions as “Eye Poke Equals a TKO,” “Flying Head Kick? 40 More Punches to Convince Me” and “Tap 10 Times For Assistance.” The Baldfather has stated on numerous occasions that he doesn’t think Mazzagatti should even be watching MMA — which is all the more astounding when you consider all the crazy shit DW has said and done to try and sell a pay-per-view before — and even gone as far as to unofficially dub Mazzagatti “The Worst Referee in the History of Fighting.” In a world where this was allowed to happen, that’s a pretty bold claim.
As it turns out, Mazzagatti found himself at the center of controversy once again last weekend when he basically handed over his reffing duties to Josh Burkman during his WSOF 3 clash with Jon Fitch. After clipping Fitch early (like somebody here predicted he would), Burkman locked in a tight guillotine that put Fitch to sleep just over 40 seconds into their headlining bout. Burkman then proceeded to roll his unconscious opponent over and stand over him triumphantly before Mazzagatti decided to step in. It was perhaps the first walk-off submission in MMA History, and for some reason, you all are pissed about it.
Although White and Fitch have been involved in a war of words ever since the AKA product was released from the UFC, at the end of the day, it’s safe to assume that White wishes no ill will towards the former title contender. And being that Mazzagatti is higher up on White’s hit list than Fitch, the UFC Prez recently laid into the veteran ref for nearly 10 straight minutes at the UFC 161 post-fight media scrum. It was, quite honestly, the harshest takedown we have seen since Neal Page’s “Chatty Cathy” criticism of Del Griffith.
We’ve placed the full video of Dana’s rant above. After the jump, we’re going flush our last remaining scrap of credibility down the toilet in an attempt to do the unthinkable: defend Steve Mazzagatti. We know, we know.
Let’s start by taking another look at the fight itself…
(Fight starts at the 2:25 mark.)
4:39 left on the fight clock – Burkman drops Fitch with a right hand.
4:32 – Fitch latches onto a single, Burkman uses a guillotine to lift Fitch back to his feet.
4:29 – Both fighters tumble to the canvas, with Burkman still holding onto the guillotine from half guard.
4:26 – Fitch is still fighting the choke, as evident by the fact that he is attempting to grab Burkman’s elbow with his left hand.
4:25 -Fitch goes noticeably limp, with Mazzagatti standing on the wrong side of the action to notice.
4:23 – Burkman releases Fitch, rolls him over, and stands triumphantly over his victim like Duke fucking Nukem.
Now, there are a couple of significant factors here that, while not absolving Mazzagatti of being an incompetent “toolbox,” at least help his case. The first thing that should be considered here is:
Context: As a longtime official at the highest level of the sport, it is Steve Mazzagatti’s job to understand that discrepancies exist between certain fighters and apply that knowledge when reffing each fight on an individual basis. In short, every ref out there knows (or should know) that Roy Nelson can take a punch, that towards the end of his career, Chuck Liddell couldn’t, and so forth.
Jon Fitch is a black belt in Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu who has not been submitted since his first ever professional contest, despite facing such submission specialists as Demian Maia, Erick Silva, and BJ Penn in recent contests. Although Mazzagatti only presided over one of Fitch’s UFC fights, he was surely in the arena for most of them, and probably took a lot of knowledge away from the ones he was able to stay awake during (BA-DUM-TSH!). To predict that Fitch would be submitted by not only an “inferior” grappler but in as quick a fashion as he was would be presumptuous to say the least. Again, this doesn’t absolve Mazzagatti and isn’t meant to, but is rather an attempt to understand where he might have been coming from. Which of course brings us to…
The Choke Itself: You don’t have to be a BJJ black belt to understand just how difficult it is to submit someone with a guillotine choke from half guard, let alone a grappler of Fitch’s pedigree. The fact that Burkman was able to do this, recognize that Fitch had gone limp, and roll him over in a mere 3 seconds is incredible to say the least. Even Bas Rutten didn’t think Burkman could pull off the choke from the position he was in, and didn’t realize that Burkman had pulled it off until he was standing over Fitch’s unconscious body. Seriously, not since Jacare vs. Camozzi have we seen a fighter go out so quickly, which could partially explain why Mazzagatti wasn’t quick to jump in.
Again, context should be taken into equation here, and given all the heat that Mazzagatti took for his early call during the Ronda Rousey vs. Sarah D’Alelio match at Challengers 18, perhaps he was assuming that he’d rather be a little late on the call than early. In this case, making the call at exactly the right moment would have required some split-second level reflexes that we rarely see from any UFC referee.
In our opinion, the real problem with Mazagatti’s non-stoppage was that it took him a whole three seconds to wave the fight off and start attending to Fitch after Burkman had already done so on his own. While Mazzagatti may have been out of position to see Fitch go limp, there is no excusing how nonchalantly he took action once he realized that Fitch was out. DW may have exaggerated just how long Burkman held onto the choke once Fitch had gone limp (a second at best), but he was undoubtedly right in his criticism of Mazzagatti’s reaction after the fact.
NSAC director Keith Kizer agreed with several of the above points when he attempted to defend Mazzagatti in an interview with MMAFighting. However, he also believed that The Baldfather’s latest rant could be attributed to his own ego more than anything else:
The guy went out and Josh immediately released the hold,” said Kizer. “What’s weird is he flipped Fitch over, away from the ref. When Josh had the hold, he (Mazzagatti) was one step away. He had a perfect view. Josh flipped him away from the ref, then stood up. I would praise the referee if he did a good job. But here, there’s nothing to talk about the ref. It wasn’t a good job or a bad job. He had no job. I think most people thought Jon was going to get out. Bas and I both thought he was letting go of the hold and transitioning to another hold.
Dana’s a good guy,” said Kizer. “Very few people care about other people as much as Dana. But you’ve heard what he’s said about former fighters, former employees, even fighters in his organization. Even Jon Jones. He likes to put people down, whether rightly or wrongly. It’s an ego thing. We all have egos. I think it’s wrong when people lie and you can make your own conclusions on Dana.
At the end of the day, we’re talking about a stoppage that could have come a second earlier at best. This wasn’t a Zaromskis vs. Koreshkov level travesty by any means, and thankfully, Burkman is the kind of fighter who can register when his foe is unconscious and show appropriate mercy in record time.
Mazzagatti has surely made some terrible calls in the past, but so has the untouchable Big John McCarthy, the unfazeable Her Dean, and the uncatchableJosh Rosenthal. All we’re saying is, of all the calls Mazzagatti has botched, we should at least give him some leeway with this one.
(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.”
(Yep, that guy in the middle is going to be the referee. And that’s not even the scariest part.)
It is a pretty well known fact that Frankie Edgar has been at the center of some controversial decisions during his run as the UFC lightweight champion (and before it, and after it…). It is also a pretty well known fact that Steve Mazzagatti has been responsible for more botched calls in his refereeing career then Carly Rae Jepsen was in 2012. It is also also a well known fact that many of the current judges in MMA couldn’t tell a leg kick from a kneebar if their lives depended on it.
So with all that in mind, you’d think the Nevada State Athletic Commission would try their hardest (or try at all, really) to ensure that the upcoming featherweight title fight between Edgar and Jose Aldo at UFC 156 would be held under the supervision of the sport’s finest referees and judges, as to avoid any controversy that could possibly come as a result of their own incompetence. You would be wrong. As MMAJunkie reports:
During a meeting Tuesday in Las Vegas, the Nevada State Athletic Commission tapped veteran referee Steve Mazzagatti to officiate UFC 156’s main event.
Additionally, the commission named Adelaide Byrd, Jeff Collins and Junichiro Kamijo to judge the featherweight title fight, which pits champ Jose Aldo (21-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) against ex-lightweight champ Frankie Edgar (14-3-1 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC).
My God, that was like reading over the list of dinner specials at a Tallahassee Denny’s establishment. At 4 a.m. Sure, the food looks decent enough when doctored up on the glossy menu, and besides, you’re already half in the bag. But then you happen to take a glance at the nutritional facts…and your heart suddenly sinks with the realization that there is no way your night doesn’t end with anything but rhythmic bouts of explosive diarrhea and shame.
(Yep, that guy in the middle is going to be the referee. And that’s not even the scariest part.)
It is a pretty well known fact that Frankie Edgar has been at the center of some controversial decisions during his run as the UFC lightweight champion (and before it, and after it…). It is also a pretty well known fact that Steve Mazzagatti has been responsible for more botched calls in his refereeing career then Carly Rae Jepsen was in 2012. It is also also a well known fact that many of the current judges in MMA couldn’t tell a leg kick from a kneebar if their lives depended on it.
So with all that in mind, you’d think the Nevada State Athletic Commission would try their hardest (or try at all, really) to ensure that the upcoming featherweight title fight between Edgar and Jose Aldo at UFC 156 would be held under the supervision of the sport’s finest referees and judges, as to avoid any controversy that could possibly come as a result of their own incompetence. You would be wrong. As MMAJunkie reports:
During a meeting Tuesday in Las Vegas, the Nevada State Athletic Commission tapped veteran referee Steve Mazzagatti to officiate UFC 156′s main event.
Additionally, the commission named Adelaide Byrd, Jeff Collins and Junichiro Kamijo to judge the featherweight title fight, which pits champ Jose Aldo (21-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) against ex-lightweight champ Frankie Edgar (14-3-1 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC).
My God, that was like reading over the list of dinner specials at a Tallahassee Denny’s establishment. At 4 a.m. Sure, the food looks decent enough when doctored up on the glossy menu, and besides, you’re already half in the bag. But then you happen to take a glance at the nutritional facts…and your heart suddenly sinks with the realization that there is no way your night doesn’t end with anything but rhythmic bouts of explosive diarrhea and shame.
Although we should breath a sigh of relief that Cecil Peoples’ name is nowhere to be found on the list of judges, it might interest you to know that Adelaide Byrd was the judge that recently scored all three rounds for Melvin Guillard in his one-sided loss to Jamie Varner at UFC 155. We’ll say that again, Adelaide Byrd scored all three rounds for Melvin Guillard at UFC 155. For those of you who didn’t catch that fight, we implore you to seek it out using whatever means possible, then ask yourself how someone who is paid to determine the winner of an MMA fight reached that conclusion. Oh yeah, and Byrd also scored the UFC 126 bout between Jake Ellenberger and Carlos Eduardo Rocha 30-27 for Rocha. So there’s that.
As for Collins and Kamijo? Well, you can take a look at their history of decisions here and here and draw your own conclusions. In our opinion, they should be able to balance out the inevitable suckitude that Byrd will bring to the table, although Collins’ 30-27 scoring of the Gleison Tibau/Khabib Nurmagomedov fight for Nurmagomedov should definitely raise some eyebrows.
On second thought, we should all just start preparing ourselves for Edgar vs. Aldo II. If Mazzagatti doesn’t misread a submission or rule an eye poke a TKO, the judges will surely score the fight a split decision for the wrong guy, or a draw. Maybe the rematch can be broadcast on the new Fox Sports 2channel – preferably as their second UFC event — so we can all look forward to discussing UFC on Fox Sports 2 II: Edgar vs. Aldo II. Should be fun.
(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.
