Dana White: I don’t want a bad ref blowing UFC on FOX 1
UFC President Dana White has said “The only thing I know when I wake up in the morning is that something…
UFC President Dana White has said “The only thing I know when I wake up in the morning is that something bad is going to happen.” Saturday night White watched the unfathomably poor reffing in Mayweather vs. Ortiz, and doubtless woke up Sunday morning worrying that poor officiating could make a mess of UFC on FOX 1.
At today’s UFC on FOX press conference, White was asked about potential refs for what is debatably the most important fight in the sport’s history.
“I don’t care who they put in there as long as he doesn’t blow a multi-million-dollar fight and a huge opportunity for the sport,” White said.
“Cortez blew a multi-million-dollar fight,” he said of Saturday’s debacle.
“The officiating has been horrendous in mixed martial arts, Let me start it off by saying this: I laid some money on Ortiz. And I’ll tell you, Ortiz started headbutting him from the first round, riubbing his head in [Mayweather’s] face from the first round on, then the most intentional headbutt you’ll ever see, and the dirtiest thing you can do in boxing is headbutt another guy.
“He headbutts him then the referee doesn’t send the guys to a neutral corner, actually lets – after [Ortiz] headbutts Mayweather in the face – let’s [Ortiz] approach him and hug him … like that’s the last thing Mayweather wants is [Ortiz] in his face after he just headbutted him. Then, again, doesn’t send the guy to a neutral corner, everything’s in chaos and confusion.”
“[Cortez] doesn’t even know an intentional foul, you take two points, not one. What you’re supposed to do is send a guy to the neutral corner. You have the doctor come in and check Mayweather to see if he’s OK to continue, and let’s assume he is – Mayweather says, ‘Yes, I can continue,’ (and) the doctor says yes. So the ref goes to the center of the ring and says, ‘I’m taking two points,’ then he walks to Ortiz and says, ‘That’s two points. If you do it again, you’re going to be disqualified.’ Then go back to the center of the ring and say, ‘Let’s fight.’ He didn’t do any of that.
“So then after the [foul], he says, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go.’ I guess he said it three times. And Ortiz comes to hug him again after he’s already said sorry 50 times, and Floyd hit him when the fight was on.”
“It’s easy to hate Floyd Mayweather. Everybody wants to hate him. First of all, Ortiz was dirty in what he did. Nothing dirtier than a headbutt, and everybody in boxing knows that. That fight should have been able to go on. A ref is in there to make sure that stuff like that doesn’t happen.
“Mayweather was strangling him at the weigh-ins, and nobody stepped in and did anything. So this thing started way before officiating was the reason this whole thing went the way that it did.”
“This would be a great opportunity for me to step up on the soapbox and go, ‘Boxing shot itself in the foot again, and look what these guys did! It had nothing to do with boxing, had nothing to do with the sport of boxing. It had to do with the officiating that night. And let me tell you what: Think about my position now. I’m about to go on FOX on Nov. 12 for our first big MMA event on free TV. I don’t want some referee that doesn’t know what he’s doing blowing my big night on FOX.”
“I hope it’s Herb Dean. I think Herb Dean’s the best referee in the business. Now I won’t get Herb Dean because I said that.”