Another weekend of great MMA action concluded with the UFC in San Antonio. The fights were pretty good overall, but throughout the weekend, we also witnessed the same old regulating body errors that continue to plague this sport committed once again.
The issues started in the main event of FURY FC 76 on Friday, with a referee watching a fighter go to sleep in a triangle choke. Gianni Vazquez was clearly unconscious in the submission and then woke up only to find himself tapping to an armbar, but the referee – who was inches away – did not have the knowledge, experience or situational awareness to stop the fight. As close as he was, he did not realize the fighter was unconscious! This was an absolutely appalling error.
https://twitter.com/Grabaka_Hitman/status/1639484900150575104
That referee should have been pulled out of any future duties immediately. Whether or not he should have been given additional training or simply not used again could be up for discussion, but for sure he should not have been permitted to be anywhere near an MMA fight until the issue was addressed. But guess what? He popped up at the UFC event the following night, after a simply horrendous error, officiating as if nothing had happened. The commission simply turned a blind eye to it.
And then, as happens time after time, there were gross judging errors in the fights that night, culminating in one judge scoring the Cory Sandhagen vs. Marlon Vera fight for “Chito,” resulting in the contest being ruled a split decision. Now, I love “Chito” to pieces, but on this night, Sandhagen was simply better. This is the reality. Any judge seeing “Chito” winning that fight is a serious issue. One more nincompoop like that in there, and the fight would have been awarded to the wrong man – a reality that keeps on happening time after time after time, and nothing seems to be being done about it. If something is being done, it sure as hell isn’t working.
When I say there needs to be sobriety tests done on officials, I mean it. I was cornering two of my fighters on the card in San Antonio, and in the locker room the same night, there was an old man serving as an official who was simply reeking of alcohol. Everyone that came near him sensed it. I did not see him do anything wrong, except for obviously being an amateur in a regulating position rather than utilizing seasoned professionals. But the truth is, a person using alcohol like that should not be in the locker rooms, and I honestly believe it should be a standard procedure that anyone officiating should submit to sobriety tests.
I have seen referees stumbling drunk the night before events multiple times. Then I see him that same person in the cage the next day, and I catch myself wondering how a person that was that drunk the night before can be up there in a situation were lives depend on his split-second reactions? It’s just bizarre.
So after this past weekend’s event, by coincidence, I bumped into a licensed judge, and we got to talking about these issues, and I found out more that – at least to me – makes no sense and adds to this mess. It turns out that these judges are not supposed to discuss publicly how they judge or why they reach certain decisions in these fights. They are under a gag order from regulators to not explain themselves to the public. They are bullied into not going on social media to discuss things. Whoa! Wait a second! Where are we? Cuba? I will name the responsible for this as “Fidel”!
Why can these judges not simply explain their decisions so that we know precisely how they managed to arrive at their choice? Is there something to hide that they’re hoping isn’t seen by us?
If these judges do ignore this stupid directive, and do go out on social media or other public platforms to try and explain their reasons, their views, what they are seeing, etc., they risk getting shelved by “Fidel.” I will tell you something: This is dictatorial to the extreme!
It is because of this attitude that we are continuing to see so many errors in MMA judging and officiating, and it’s up to us in the industry to confront these issues until we can make change. We professionals who have worked in this field for years – and even decades – cannot continue to be submitted to this by people that are obviously not up to par with the performance necessary in these jobs. We need to take issue, to confront, to fight, until we create change!
Alex Davis is a lifelong practitioner of martial arts and a former Brazilian judo champion. A founding member of American Top Team, Davis currently oversees the careers of a number of prominent Brazilian fighters, and he runs a branch of the famed ATT camp in Las Vegas. Davis is proud to share his current views on the sport, built through his perspectives that date back to the Brazilian roots of modern MMA, with the audience at MixedMartialArts.com.
