Yves Lavigne: ‘Those are not my quotes’
Recently, reknowned referee Yves Lavigne was quoted by a controversial journalist, making some uncharacteristic, uncomplimentary comments about fighter Josh Koscheck….
Recently, reknowned referee Yves Lavigne was quoted by a controversial journalist, making some uncharacteristic, uncomplimentary comments about fighter Josh Koscheck. Below Lavigne responds unambiguously in an interview with Ariel Helwani.
Ariel Helwani: I know it’s been a rough of couple of days for you.
Yves Lavigne: That’s an understatement. Personally, but not professionally.
AH: Absolutely. How have you been dealing with all of this?
YL: Umm… it’s been rough. You know, when you did nothing wrong, it’s been rough. I don’t know how the heck I came in the middle of all of this.
AH: So you say you’ve done nothing wrong and by that you mean you have never talked to this individual … who claims to have interviewed you and have gotten all these comments from you about things that you said about Josh Koscheck and GSP. You never talked to this guy before, right?
YL: No, I… maybe I spoke with him during an event, you see a lot of people but you’re going to have to help me out here, Ariel. What words should I choose. You know I’m going to try to make a few sentence and tell me if it’s suitable for what I want to say. I did not give him an interview on or off record. Those are not my quotes. This is not me. Is that enough?
AH: That is enough.
YL: Thank you. Because, you know, I read a few things on the Internet and I’m like, OK, maybe I should have said it differently but my English is not as good as I want to and I don’t see all the nuance or subtlety in the words. So, look, I didn’t do it, basically.
AH: How does something like this even happen? Do you think this guy is targeting you, he’s trying to, you know, ruin your career in some way. I mean, why would this guy come here and make up these quotes about you? Have you been able to find out if he has some of sort vendetta against you or anything like that?
YL: Hopefully not, you know. People know me, you know I’m easy-going person so I don’t know. You know I read on the Internet, I think it’s Dave Simon from Team 990 put something on the internet that apparently David Loiseau has this beef or he’s in court with him, against him sorry because of things that he wrote in the past and apparently other fighters in Quebec has the same issue with him.
AH: Yeah, famously David Loiseau had the problem, Steve Bosse, a lot of people have problems with this guy and it kind of leads me to wonder how he even still has a job if there are people accusing him of making up quotes.
YL: I don’t know, look. All I know is that I’m in the middle of this, I spoke with my lawyers, apparently they are down or not on the Internet any more, but I think the damage has been done, so…
AH: So what does someone do if they’re in a situation like this? You say you’ve talked to your lawyers. What can you do about this?
YL: I can bring him to court but you know I have different options I have to weigh and every option that I have, you know, with lawyers you have a $$$ stamped to it if you go that way it’s going to cost you maybe that much and that much and that much so I’m in the process of evaluating everything and to see if I have the financial, you know, back-up to go all the way because this is a big corporation but I don’t know yet, I’m still thinking about things that I can do.
AH: How has this affected you professionally?
YL: There’s nothing.
AH: Well, in the sense as an MMA referee…
YL: Oh, yeah, because I don’t do that for a living. This is a hobby, being a ref. I don’t earn my living doing that. So, professionally, yeah, I’m still you know the CFO of a manufacturing company in Montreal and this is business as usual. However, as yet I don’t see, the only downside that I can see and I’m going to tell you that right away because I spoke with my athletic commissioner over the weekend and we’ve been in contact, he knows it, all the story he knows it, where it’s going and I can assure you one thing — the last thing on earth that I want is to have an influence on that fight of Mr. Koscheck and St. Pierre. So what we decided, me and the athletic commissioner here, and to not screw up with the training camp or Mr. Koscheck or St. Pierre having that in the back of their mind, we decided not to have me ref that fight so Mr. Koscheck can put that aside for certain. I will not be the ref of that fight that night so that way he can train 100% without having me on the back of his head maybe wondering if I’m going to ref his fight and Georges St. Pierre can do the same not wondering if I’m going to leaning in favor of Mr. Koscheck because of all this because I will not be the ref of that fight.
AH: Were you supposed to be the ref of that fight?
YL: It was not decided as we speak but you know since it’s my backyard, it’s in Montreal, everything you know the last three UFC here in Montreal I was like the guy doing the finals so…
AH: Will you still be working that event?
YL: Oh yeah, why shouldn’t I?
AH: Just curious, Josh Koscheck, we actually had him on the show earlier today.
YL: How is he?
AH: He’s not too happy right now. He didn’t really want to talk about it. He said some things that I will not repeat here. You can listen to it yourself. But he says that he doesn’t (want) you to ever ref any of his fights and he thinks you shouldn’t actually ref ANY MMA fights ever and to that I ask you… you maybe think that you want to reach out to him and tell him your side of the story because who knows if he listen to this interview?
YL: No, I don’t want to reach out to him. I don’t want to reach out to any of the fighters. This is, you know, I’m a ref, we should have a healthy distance between the fighter and the ref so you know unfortunately that thing happened. My lawyers are going to take care of it and I’m going to check whatever I can do about it but rest assured, Mr… look, for that fight, he can be sure that I will not ref it. For the other ones, I think it’s up to the athletic commissioners who’s been appointed to ref, I don’t think it’s in the hands of Mr. Koscheck or his camp or anything.
AH: Has any other commissioner out there reached out to you and asked for you to explain the situation as you’re doing right now?
YL: Yes.
AH: And, so how did that go? I mean, are they like, OK, we believe you, let’s move on or have some raised some red flags?
YL: So far, so good.
AH: That’s good. So, from you know, right now, this has not effected your career as an MMA referee at all? You have been able to tell these commissioners that quotes were manufactured or fabricated and all that other stuff?
YL: I didn’t try to convince them, I just told them my side of the story and what happened. I didn’t do it. You know, whether they believe me or not, it’s not up to me any more. It’s like, the only reason why I’m talking to you today is because you know I want to do one interview and that’s it and like I want to be done with this. I’m like, geez, how come I’m stuck in the middle of this? I don’t know but, look, I didn’t say it. I didn’t give him an interview and that’s what I’m repeating to the athletic commissioners. You know, we’ll find out soon enough if they believe me or not because I’m going to be assigned, or not, to other shows.