Refereeing in combat sports is utterly thankless – if you do your job perfectly, no one remembers you were even there. However, sometimes circumstances are such that a referee has to stand out, as happened at UFC Fight 118.

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor showed up in Gdansk, Poland to support his SBGi teammate Artem Lobov vs. Andre Fili. McGregor was passionately pacing around outside the Octagon shouting instructions.

It looked like this:

https://twitter.com/ufc/status/921791326978433024

Then, referee Marc Goddard paused the action when he could do so without interfering with the fight outcome, and told McGregor to simmer down.

“What’s got into you mate?” asked Goddard. “Act professional.”

To his credit, Notorious simmered down.

https://twitter.com/ufc/status/921794726428209153

Fili won the fight handily, and afterward, McGregor offered his congratulations.

Fili was unphased, and said McGregor’s antics were a help.

I feed off the kind of stuff that happened tonight,” said Fili, as transcribed by Tristen Critchfield for Sherdog. “I saw Conor in the crowd and I got 10 times more excited. He was getting all hyped up, and I got even more hyped up. I feed off that. I love confrontation. The only thing better than beating Artem right now is beating Artem and seeing McGregor right there talking s***.”

Lobov referenced potential retirement in a tweet, and in a post-fight interview indicated he wants to return to professional boxing, naming Paulie Malignaggi as a potential opponent.

https://twitter.com/RusHammerMMA/status/921806070191968257

And Fili gets the last word. After the fight, he asked those listening to start treating each other like human beings.

“There’s only one race, the human race,” he said. “We need to take care of each other.”