The Ultimate Fighting Championship boss was
frustrated enough with the officiating Saturday night that he
invoked one of his least favorite names.
In the light heavyweight bout between Ed Herman and
Mike
Rodriguez at
UFC Fight Night 177, Rodriguez was in control of the fight when
he landed a vicious knee to Herman’s body, midway through the
second round. Herman dropped to the ground and referee Chris
Tognoni, apparently mistaking the body shot for a low blow, allowed
“Short Fuse” a timeout to recover. Tognoni’s call led to the
awkward scene of the veteran Herman wisely taking his time to
regroup while replays repeatedly showed the completely legal nature
of the strike in question.
What might have been an embarrassing but largely harmless gaffe
became a serious issue in the third round, however, when
Herman—still taking a beating from the younger man—locked up
a kimura from the bottom, forcing Rodriguez to tap out.
Considering that the fight might well have been stopped shortly
after the second-round knee strike if things had been allowed to
play out, Tognoni’s mistake had now, arguably, changed the entire
outcome of the fight.
At the post-fight news conference, White ripped Tognoni’s work,
comparing him to longtime MMA referee Steve Mazzagatti. White has
always been vocal about referees’ and judges’ mistakes, and
Mazzagatti has been one of the officials about whom White has
complained the most over the years.
“It’s hard not to bang on this guy,” he said. “The worst I’ve ever
seen. He’s f—ing Mazzagatti level. That’s some Mazzagatti-level
s–t right there, it was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.
That kid wins by knockout, technical knockout, and loses the
fight.”
White went on to claim that more savvy usage of instant replay
would have solved the sticky situation. The Nevada State Athletic
Commission’s rules (Nac 467.482) state that a referee can call a
time-out to consult with officials of the Commission or to view
replay footage at any time during a fight, but in practice, it has
generally only happened when reviewing fight-ending sequences.
“I was all over them tonight about the replay,” White added. “We
have to have a replay. There’s got to be a replay. All you’ve got
to do is look at the f—ing replay that is playing 6,000 times
while Herman is on the ground and say, ‘Oh s–t, I made a mistake.’
You can’t see everything. We’re human and that’s a tough one. How
you think that is a groin kick is next level nuts, but whatever. It
happens. What are you going to do about it? It happened.”
White also stated that Rodriguez would be paid his win bonus
despite the official result, while Rodriguez’s team announced that
they would file an appeal.