NSAC uses video replay for the first time
TUF 10 Finale: Kizer comfortable with Mazzagatti call; Ratner in favor of replay expansion UFC president Dana White was noticeably…
TUF 10 Finale: Kizer comfortable with Mazzagatti call; Ratner in favor of replay expansion
UFC president Dana White was noticeably absent from The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale post-event press conference, and it may have been for the best.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission utilized instant replay to determine the outcome of a mixed martial arts contest for the first time in its history on the TUF 10 Finale card, and White’s favorite whipping-boy official, Steve Mazzagatti, was responsible for utilizing the technology.
But NSAC executive director Keith Kizer was at the gathering, and he believes Mazzagatti handled the situation precisely as instructed by the commission’s regulations.
“It’s completely up to the referee,” Kizer said. “When Mazzagatti came around and looked at the replay, they were actually showing a perfect angle. Good work by the cameramen, I must say. [Mazzagatti] saw that, and it was pretty straightforward from there.”
The issue came during the evening’s co-main event at The Pearl at the Palms Casino resort in Las Vegas between light heavyweights Jon Jones and Matt Hamill.
With Jones in the mount position late in the first round, he unleashed a dizzying flurry of punches, forearms and elbows from the top. Hamill did his best to survive the onslaught, but the end appeared near. Suddenly, Mazzagatti halted the bout and deducted a point from Jones for throwing a few illegal strikes from the top.
After announcing the scoring adjustment needed after Jones struck his opponent with downward elbows – textbook examples of the “12-to-6” variety – Mazzagatti went back to check on Hamill. With “The Hammer” unable to regain his feet and sporting blood across his face, Mazzagatti waved off the bout.
Jones’ camp began to celebrate, but that was when history began to unfold.
“Once Mr. Jones got off Mr. Hamill, (Mazzagatti) took the point away, and when he went back to check on Mr. Hamill, he saw he wasn’t in condition to continue because of the facial wounds,” Kizer said. “[Mazzagatti] used instant replay to determine whether the intentional fouls contributed to those wounds, and they definitely did. He made the call he had to make.”
“It’s a disqualification”
Kizer said despite the numerous legal blows that came in the barrage – as many as 85 depending on who’s counting – the fact that the illegal blows were shown to have caused the damage meant disqualification was the only proper call.
“At the end of the day, you have the illegal elbows that cut [Hamill] up, and that’s why it was stopped,” Kizer told MMAjunkie.com. “The only call you can make in that situation is a disqualification.
“Because there was definitely some damage done by lawful elbows, it was difficult to determine what caused what until he saw the instant replay. Then it was very easy. It would have been a tough call for him without the instant replay just due to the good strikes that preceded the illegal blows. That’s why we added it.”
Hamill also suffered a shoulder injury somewhere in the melee, but Kizer said…
