UFC
Dana White opines on officiating problems out of UFC 149 in Calgary
Jul 23, 2012 - 11:25:47 AM Dana White opines on officiating problems out of UFC 149 in Calgary

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Several things went wrong on Saturday night at UFC 149 in Calgary, many of them involving the night's officials, which brought about another fiery response from UFC President Dana White.

White's biggest target after Saturday's event was Yves Lavigne, who officiated the most derided bout of the night between Cheick Kongo and Shawn Jordan. The entire bout was plagued with inactivity, with both struggling in the clinch against the cage without doing a ton offensively, leading to a dull and terribly boring fight.

"I'm so pissed at Lavigne," White said after the post-fight press conference (via MMAJunkie.com). "He just stands there, like a dope, and watches these guys clinch on the fence, not advancing their position, not doing damage. Just standing there for two rounds – and then you let them do it for an entire five minutes in a three-round fight. And again, I blame all three involved in that. But the ref's job is to protect the fighters, make the right calls – and make sure they fight."

But Lavigne wasn't the only one getting a verbal lashing, as White went after referee Josh Rosenthal for a particularly poor judgment call in the Matt Riddle-Chris Clements fight. When Riddle landed a hard kick to the body, Clements nearly keeled over, and Rosenthal halted the action believing it to be an illegal kick to the groin.

"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."

The complaints led to White's main point: officiating in the sport is broken, and needs to be fixed, and he doesn't understand how little reprimanding there is for officials who do make mistakes.

"I will always be vocal and say exactly what I think about it," White said. "I would say that I'm probably the most vocal promoter on the planet when it comes to officiating. I'm not just talking about mixed martial arts. I'm talking about boxing, too. If this doesn't get fixed, it just absolutely crushes the sport. It's so bad. These athletic commissions are put in place to provide judges and referees to be fair, to know what they're doing, to be professional..."

"I think any job you have, and you don't do your job, you get reprimanded. Or you get suspended for three fights and they have some class you have to sit in and watch the fights and see what you did wrong. Refs and judges will make mistakes. But things like that – you're too far away, so you screw the kid out of the KO [record], you miss a kick to the body you think is a kick to the groin, the other guy's standing around letting guys clinch the entire third round. At what point do you go, 'OK, there's no fight going on here'?"

Penick's Analysis: The lack of true accountability when it comes to officiating is definitely a problem. Athletic commissions seem unwilling to admit when clear mistakes are made, and there is no history of discipline towards officials who do make repeated and consistent mistakes. That leads to lots of complaints from fighters and promoters, not to mention fans. Getting into officiating is not an easy task, so it's not a vocation that will bring about a new generation anytime soon, but the job done by the current crop can certainly be improved. Accountability is a big part of that, and it just doesn't seem to happen at all.