Cagewriter - UFC

Cagewriter

Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:00 am EDT

White calls MMA refs terrible, can barely name the good ones

By Steve Cofield

The officiating inside the cage at UFC 96 was a big topic in the aftermath. Referee Rick Fike started the night off in dubious fashion and Yves Lavigne almost got Pete Sell killed. That prompted UFC president Dana White to go on a tirade. He's so unhappy with the state of officiating in mixed martial arts that he stated there's only three good referees. And even those guys, he had trouble recalling.

Watch White talk about the refs and how he hurt his arm:

digg delicious
more

51 Comments

Post a Comment
  1. MMA4Life
    1. Posted by MMA4Life Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:28 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Maybe he can become a ref how cool would that be watching white pull guys off then punching them for not stopping.
  2. fightchica
    2. Posted by fightchica Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:53 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Oops forgive me Mario Yamasaki
  3. Steven W
    3. Posted by Steven W Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:47 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    hahaha, kristi yamaguchi will be so happy
  4. colin c
    4. Posted by colin c Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:50 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    The only thing worse than reffing was the judging.
    How 1 judge had Rampage at 30-27 is beyond me. only thing he did win was in power, takedowns negated by escapes, never had a ground and pound, at kicks all night. i had it 29-28 Jardine giving Jackson too much credit for in effect 4 punches. otherwise he was not effective. But hey ho, we get the first black vs black title fight........... and you thought Obama as president was ground breaking.
    I swear i honestly walked out last night considering never watching the UFC again.
  5. Jason
    5. Posted by Jason Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:28 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Big John, Herb Dean, Mario Yamasaki are all excellent. Dan Miragoliotta & Yve Lavigne are solid. Mazzagatti is one of the very, very worst in the business.
  6. glok
    6. Posted by glok Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:10 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    for once jack ass is right. officiating sucked last night. matt brown did not want to continue to pummel his opponent yet the retard ref allowed it to continue. congrats dana, you are now only 1/2 scum of human
  7. alex
    7. Posted by alex Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:50 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Mazzagatti sucks BALLS!!!
  8. Mr. Big
    8. Posted by Mr. Big Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:00 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    I think after the the Shane vs Riley fight where Dana was upset it ended too early affected Lavigne in his decision to keep the Brown vs Sell fight going for as long as it did.
  9. JK
    9. Posted by JK Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:33 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Yves is NOT a good ref and if you think he is you don't know good reffing. He's consistently caught off guard and consistently makes bad choices.
    Example 1: Lyoto Machida punched and knocked out Thiago Silva. He got one more uncontested shot on his face with Thiago clearly sleeping (hands at side, eyes closed). Yves stepped in and I thought for once he had made a good stop, but it turns out he was only stopping Lyoto because the bell rang. On the replay you can see that Yves stops the fight, then 10 seconds later realizes that Thiago is KTFO and calls it.
    Example 2: Rich Clementi is fighting Terry Etim. He's losing the standup, but is ground and pounding his way to victory. He's not hitting hard, but he's definitely still working. Yves stands them up because the crowd starts booing.
    This isn't a fluke, it's a pattern. He's god-awful, and if last night didn't prove it then you're blind.
  10. Crystal E
    10. Posted by Crystal E Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:50 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    2 words big john
  11. Klitschko_ KO
    11. Posted by Klitschko_ KO Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:00 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    World HW Champs, Klitschko & Klitschko, over the past decade have dominated ALL fighters. The MMA are = to a HW Journeymam with a 17-28 record.
    Refs are poor as a few in HW Boxing, still, either Klitschko can knockout any athelete in the World, especially USA fighters/boxers. They are bad, bad, men, fast, quick, and big and I don't mean flabby big, both have Phds. Bad, bad, man, Klitschko
  12. plaster2man
    12. Posted by plaster2man Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:14 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    pay Big John more to come out of retirement, there's a fix
  13. stingrey
    13. Posted by stingrey Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:30 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    dana doesn't run the "show"...at least not concerning refs. they're employees of the state athletic commissions, not the UFC. I'm not quite sure why you feel the need to tell us that you are out but...okay.
  14. blindtheory
    14. Posted by blindtheory Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:09 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    big john isnt retired, he ref the affliction events, and he doesnt want anything to do with the ufc. thats obvious. and i agree with everyone out there that thinks all these stand ups are bs like i do. its a part of the game, if someone can lay on you for five minutes and u cant get em off you, tough luck, train harder. not exciting, but when the refs ruin the integrity of the sport strictly to entertain is when things will start going down the tube.
  15. Wusabi Bobby
    15. Posted by Wusabi Bobby Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:10 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Hahaha you called the other guy racist and I'm pretty sure your last line was the most racist thing I've read in this entire thread. Congrats on being an absolute moron.
  16. Wusabi Bobby
    16. Posted by Wusabi Bobby Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:10 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    That was directed at "Pee" by the way.
  17. yp_k518
    17. Posted by yp_k518 Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:58 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Wow! A bunch of ignorant comments made. What a suprise. Dana White has no control over who officiates. That is up to the state athletic commission. Oracle is an idiot.The quality of MMA fighters is better than any other sport. The Klitchko brothers would get tooled in a FIGHT. A grappling base is way better than a striking base. Just look at almost every single encounter between a boxer and any other fighting discipline. The boxers lose over 90% of the time. Pee is correct on the racist comment, but then goes on to make an ass of himself by doing the exact same thing he was complaining about.
  18. DaveyJones
    18. Posted by DaveyJones Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:36 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Steve Mazzagatti is a TERRIBLE referee!! He may be the worst!
    Listen to Dana, cautch himself as he says "NOT Mazzagatti"
    Brock Lesnar and other specifically requests that Mazzagatti not referee their fights
    Ask Anthony Johnson about getting poked in the eye and then being TKO'd by Mazzagatti
  19. Anthony D
    19. Posted by Anthony D Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:44 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    what, does the black guys comments suprise you?
    =effin obama quiting wrights sermon cause he might not get voted in.... but the last 15 years were ok.
    'I dont smoke anymore"
    hoodwinked=america
    which black guy is gonna take brock? or GPS?
    i personaly like rampage and hope he regains title.
  20. PD
    20. Posted by PD Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:08 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Hey Pee, way to complain about racism and write something totally racist (we're taking ova??). Idiot. Try to stay on one thought for more than 30 seconds. If you're planning to take "ova", why are you whining and crying about racism?
    That said, I'm white, and I was rooting for Jackson the whole way. Great fighter. Sorry Pee, it doesn't scare me to have black people succeed. I would prefer it. Grow up.
  21. angel
    21. Posted by angel Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:52 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    An MMA fighter is no match for a boxer. Had they let Mike Tyson compete like they once entertained, he would of made an embarassment of the industry. Back when Ali fought the top Asian martial artist in the 70's they hiped it for months. It turned out to be a one minute- one punch knockout by Ali.
  22. Simon Le Pierre
    22. Posted by Simon Le Pierre Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:44 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Pee you're almost as stupid as Colin C. I mean does it surprise you that there is so much racism online? When you step out on the town into mostly white areas people do look at you weird and treat you differently. Those people are people like Colin C that cannot stand us at all. Last thing you want to do is be as stupid as people like that.
  23. what
    23. Posted by what Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:13 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    mma is all faked and rigged wwe is the only good entertainment out there wrestlemania coming soon
    whooooooooooo
  24. rob s
    24. Posted by rob s Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:04 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    "An MMA fighter is no match for a boxer."
    You do realize that boxers have been in MMA and lost horribly, right? You put a boxer on his back, and he doesn't know what to do. Hell, look at UFC 1. The boxer (29-5 pro boxing record) tapped as soon as he hit the ground. An MMA fighter is no match for a boxer under boxing rules, sure. But a boxer is no match for an MMA fighter under MMA rules. I don't know why there are so many idiots that think boxers would run through MMA.
  25. MAX_IN_MISSOURI
    25. Posted by MAX_IN_MISSOURI Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:07 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Did he start to call the asian ref "nagasaki"?

Cagewriter

Add to My Yahoo! RSS

Steve Cofield

Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.

Contributors:
Maggie Hendricks, Zak Jensen,

Related Photo Gallery

More MMA Photos »

Y! Sports Blogs

Cagewriter Recent Readers

(provided by MyBlogLog)