It might not look like so for an untrained eye but being an MMA referee really is a tough job. You’re there to ensure the fighters’ safety, which in itself is already a pressuring task, but you also have to do so in a very pressuring environment.

In fact, few possess the ability to take crucial decisions at a moment’s notice. Did that inside leg kick land legally or was it a low blow? Was that a legitimate eye poke or is that fighter trying to get a break in order to recover? That fighter is in a tough spot; should I stop the fight or let him a chance to recover? As you can see referees always walk a fine line.

The situations highlighted above are fairly hard to analyze since they involve a lot of variables. Even a veteran referee is bound to wrongly analyze a certain situation from time to time and make a bad call. Does it suck for the fighters, teams, and fans? It does, but this kind of things happen.

Now, and to be fair, there are situations that are very easy to make a call over, and pretty clear-cut. Consider the following footage for instance.

The scene happened at an MMA event in Delhi, India. The fighter in the red shorts opens up with a leg kick; his foe immediately tries to counter with a straight right but comes up short. The fighter in red goes for an inside leg kick but this time he meets his opponent’s well-timed counter right hand.

And that’s where things get ugly.

The fighter in red is unconscious pretty much as the big right hand lands on his jaw, yet the referee, albeit being right near the two fighters, fails to recognize it. What ensues is a gruesome, horrific follow-up in which he gets hit to the head no more than 10 times, with the referee doing, well, literally nothing. Truly a disgusting footage.