MMA Referees: Where’s the Consistency?

While UFC 142 may ultimately be remembered mostly for Edson Barboza’s scintillating knockout or Jose Aldo’s electrifying finish and celebration, the event also underscored the need of greater consistency from MMA referees. Two notable things stand out about the refereeing on Saturday night: the Mario Yamasaki disqualification ruling against Erick Silva and the quick stand-ups and separations issued by Dan Miragliotta in the Vitor Belfort-Anthony Johnson fight.

Is It Illegal or Not?

There are a few common reactions to the Mario Yamasaki stoppage-turned-disqualification on Saturday night. The first is that it was an awful decision, and should have been ruled a TKO win. The second is that Yamasaki’s call was correct, but he should have handled it differently (such as by pausing the fight, taking a point and giving Prater a chance to recover and continue). The third is that everything Yamasaki did was fine.

You can place me in the second camp, though I don’t see any real difference between that and the third in this case. If he had stopped the fight and allowed Prater some time, he wouldn’t have been able to continue. When a fighter can’t continue because of an illegal blow, he or she wins by disqualification, anyway. Now, that fight was basically already over by the time Prater was struck illegally. The problem is that the fight hadn’t officially ended, and the blow (or blows, I suppose…only one was really clear) still happened. So then, should the foul have just been ignored?

Many people would seem to answer that question with a “yes”, which is mystifying to me. Let me get this straight: blows to the back of the head are illegal, right? What other kind of illegal strike would be permitted as long as it occurred during the finishing sequence of a fight?

None of them would. If Silva had gone to the body during the finishing sequence instead and had one of his body shots land right to Prater’s groin, would Yamasaki have been expected to just ignore it since “the fight was pretty much over”? What about if he had poked Prater in the eyes with one hand while punching him with the other? Would we expect Yamasaki to ignore that? So, why are shots to the back of the head treated any differently?

Here’s the deal: the athletic commissions need to spell out specific courses of action to take when a fighter is hit to the back of the head. As is, there’s been inconsistency where some referees seem to ignore punches to the back of the head, as long as there aren’t many, while others simply issue warnings and let the action continue. Rarely, you’ll see a referee actually halt the action and warn the offending fighter, sometimes even taking a point in the process. Again, there’s no consistency there.

It seems to me that besides not making it clear from the outset that he was halting the fight due to a foul, Yamasaki didn’t do anything really wrong. What he did do was become the first referee in a long time to actually enforce a particular rule. I’m reminded of when an NBA referee decided to whistle Dwight Howard some time ago for taking longer than ten seconds to shoot a free throw. Was it the right call? Yes, but the rule is so rarely enforced that it still felt…well, wrong.

Which brings me to the last discussion point:

Where’s the Consistency?

I think I speak for a lot of MMA fans, writers, and even fighters when I say that more than anything, I want consistency from MMA officials. If fighters knew how judges were going to score fights and how things were actually weighed in terms of scoring, they wouldn’t have such a problem with the scoring itself. When one judge has it 30-27 for Fighter A and two others have it 29-28 and 30-27 for Fighter B, it makes everyone wonder exactly what the basis was for each judge’s scorecard. We should never have to wonder that, because better, more specific guidelines should be introduced.

The same is even more true for referees. How does it make sense that a fight like that between Johnson and Belfort could go drastically different depending on the referee who was assigned, or apparently, the location where the fight takes place? We’ve seen referees respond to booing from the crowd with a hasty standup many times in the past, though not usually someone as experienced as Dan Miragliotta.

The first time Johnson got a takedown, he settled into Belfort’s guard with 4:42 left in the first round. He stood up after a failed armbar attempt by Belfort and punched his way back into Belfort’s guard with 4:22 left, and is only given until 3:47 left to work. That’s 35 seconds. Johnson later shot for a takedown and Belfort defended, sprawling back toward the cage. Johnson pushed Belfort into the cage and began looking for a double leg takedown, then a single leg takedown, with 3:20 left in the round. Just 26 seconds later, Miragliotta was separating the fighters. With 2:33 left, Johnson landed another takedown, and this time appeared to be more active, throwing several shots that weren’t exactly full power (he was obviously tiring already), but showed activity nonetheless. Miragliotta stood the fighters up with 1:51 left, after 42 seconds.

After the first few minutes of the round, Johnson was clearly gassed and was just desperately reaching for Belfort’s legs. Belfort took his back and choked him out, as we all know. But the crux of my argument is not that Miragliotta necessarily changed the outcome with his actions. Belfort looked as if he would have won no matter what. Had Johnson been allowed to stay on top of Belfort all round, he would still have been tired and at a serious disadvantage to begin round two.

The problem is that Miragliotta should not be looking to alter the course of the fight unless he absolutely has to. Waiting between 26 and 42 seconds before affecting the course of the fight does not fit the bill. The issue becomes even muddier when you figure that in almost all fights, there is one fighter who wants the fight on the mat a lot more than his opponent does. In this case, Johnson badly wanted the fight on the mat. Whether we feel he was going to win or not, how can we say Miragliotta is not showing favoritism, whether he intends to or not, with these quick interventions on Belfort’s behalf?

It isn’t Miragliotta’s job to make sure that fights are glorified kickboxing matches, and it isn’t his job to help Belfort get back to his feet in front of his home crowd. It’s Belfort’s job to get back to his feet, and if he can’t, he should remain on his back until it’s clear that neither fighter is doing anything for some time. How long should that time be? I don’t know, but I think it’s fair to say that it should be longer than half a minute in a five-minute round.

I don’t think there should be a “stand-up clock” like a failed MMA organization whose name escapes me tried to have years ago, but there should be some uniformity when it comes to how long fighters are allowed to work. Belfort did a good job of tying Johnson up, but should that be a viable strategy? Simply control your opponent from the bottom for thirty seconds and boom! You’re back up? No defensive wrestling needed?

If fighters don’t know what to expect, how can they prepare? Is thirty seconds really long enough to determine that nothing’s going to happen on the mat? Should we ignore inconsistencies simply because the fighter being slighted by the poor decision-making missed weight by eleven pounds? Should we expect referees to ignore illegal blows because it’s inconvenient to enforce them? The problem here is that sports need to have rules and guidelines that make sense, as well as consistent enforcement of said rules. In MMA, that’s still too often not the case.

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Tags: Anthony Johnson, awful refereeing, Carlo Prater, Dan Miragliotta, Erick Silva, Mario Yamasaki, UFC, UFC 142, Vitor Belfort