Charles "Mask" Lewis - "Do greatness -- leave average to the lazy.”
“I just want to mean something someday. Be more than someone who could have been, hopefully more than meets the eye, more than face paint, someone that will honestly make you proud.”
Referee Marc Wasem - "Touch gloves, go back to your gloves. Uh, corners." – (giving the final instructions to Torres and Mizugaki)
Recently, UFC® President Dana White shared his views on Refereeing and Judging in MMA:
"One of the big problems that we have is judging and reffing," said White. "It's one of the things that drives me crazy and attention needs to be paid to scoring and ref'ing."
Agreed. That's the whole reason we created ELITE MMA Referees and Judges! Go here to learn more.
Dana further says: "First of all, it affects guy's careers as far as legacies go. Jon Jones? Jon Jones should be undefeated right now but he's not; he's got a loss on his record and there's tons of guys in the UFC that have those. There's guys who have absolutely, clearly won fights and they have lost on the judges' scorecards."
Agreed Dana - and again, as you always say, if you don't want that to happen, "don't leave your fight in the hands of the judges." But NOT because they don't know what they're doing...but because judges can only call what they see. So if a fighter's back is to them, and his opponent is on top doing some ground and pound but those strikes are getting blocked...most likely the judge is going to give credit to the fighter on top. It's what he sees. You don't want that? Submit or KO your opponent.
"Nobody's perfect. There's always gonna be problems. But the judging and the reffing is so bad in mixed martial arts, it it it's...uhhhh it drives me crazy!!! The fans hate it too and it hurts the sport. These athletic commissions really need to tighten up and start working on educating their refs and judges."
Again - we agree that ref's and judges need to be better educated. If you're experienced in at least one or more of the martial arts that make up MMA, and you want to learn the basics of the Rules and Regulations of MMA, even if you don't want to get your Ref or Judge's license, go here to learn more. You can still take the online course and see what's required of ref's and judges!
Jason Kidd fined $25,000 for criticizing officiating in an NBA game earlier this week
In a move never seen in MMA, Dallas Mavericks guard, Jason Kidd, was fined $25,000 for supposedly publicly slamming NBA officials earlier in the week. The fine was announced by Stu Jackson, the league's executive vice president of basketball operations. Kidd was fined for comments made to the media on Monday following the Mavericks 95-91 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Apparently, it's been reported that after the locker room had cleared out of all players except Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki, a reporter asked Kidd what he said to referees after Ian Mahinmi was called for a highly questionable sixth foul during the final minute of the game. Kidd said: "He didn't foul him! That was a bad call. Clean block."
The reporter then asked about the free throw disparity (33 for OKC to 10 for Dallas), and Kidd replied: "It's been like that all year. We don't get the benefit of the whistle."
Kidd was asked if it seem strange, given that the Mavericks are defending NBA champions? He relied: "Yeah, but I don't think we're looked upon as defending champions," he said. "That's a whole 'nother story."
"What do you mean?" asked the reporter. "Dirk, he should live at the line, if they would call it the way it's supposed to," Kidd said. "But he doesn't."
Amazingly, even though Kidd's comments occurred almost 30 minutes after the Mavericks' loss in Oklahoma City, and no one was around to hear them except one reporter and a teammate, it was enough to get him fined.
Really? Fined $25k for that? It just sounds like he's offering his point of view, based on questions that were asked of him - it's not like he spouted off and went media-blitz-crazy, slamming, as it's been reported, the refs.
Can you imagine the fines that would be levied in MMA, if the NBA was in charge?
In his article entitled "Dana White rips MMA referees too" - Anthony Gannon, the Newark (NJ) MMA Examiner, says: "Refereeing is a thankless job. You’re blasted if you stop the fight too soon, and you’re blasted again if you wait too long. The difference between a quick stoppage and letting someone take a couple of unnecessary blows is a couple of seconds. Mistakes will be made."
How true - and certainly something we've written about in the past. Interestingly, however, he brings up a new idea. We tend to blame MMA refs for everything that goes wrong in a fight, right? So why don't we give them credit when things go right?
"If we’re to blame referees for everything that goes wrong in the cage then surely we must also praise them for all that goes right. Dana White is big on boasting of the UFC’s record for fighter safety. He loves to tell anyone who will listen that in the history of the UFC there’s never been a death or serious injury. That’s pretty amazing. But why is that? It’s not just because of the rules and regulations and weight divisions, all the things that the current owners, Zuffa, embraced when they bought the company in 2001. It’s also because of that third person in the cage solely responsible for fighter safety: the referee."
Makes sense to me, and a great point of view. Like Gannon says: "So let’s hold referees accountable, but let’s also give a little credit where it's due." Nice.
In his article "The Five Worst Referees in MMA Today," Matt Juul, Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, says "Other than fighting in the cage, having the occupation of refereeing a bout may be one of the hardest jobs in mixed martial arts." I have to say I agree with that statement. It's not only difficult, but it's a highly unappreciated job.
He then says: "Like in any other sport, a good referee is almost invisible during a fight, only interjecting themselves when the need arises. However, when a referee is forced into the forefront of a fan's consciousness, it is usually for a negative reason. MMA has had its share of officials who repeatedly botch calls to the chagrin of fighters and fans alike."
Very true - a favorite MMA Referee one week can quickly feel the pain of the fans' sting the next, if it's felt they've mis-called a fight.
So who does Juul list as the five worst referees in MMA today?
1 - Steve Mazzagatti
2 - Dan Miragliotta
3 - Larry Landless
4 - Cecil Peoples
5 - Yves Lavigne
Now - truth be told, we at EMMAR don't necessarily agree with his list, or the order of worse to worst, but that's just us. For example, Mazzagatti was never really that bad, but I personally had major issues with his stoppage in the bout between Ronda Rousey and Sarah D'Alelio (see the video.) I mean - come on now, what was Mazz thinking?
Gene LaBell Talks the Current State of MMA Judging and Refereeing
You may have hear of Gene LaBell, famed Judo master known for his time in the pro wrestling circuit with National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). "Judo" has also taught art of grappling to such notables as Roddy Piper, Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, Karo Parisyan and woman's new Strikeforce Bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey.
According to Adam Guillen Jr. of SBNation.com, LeBell has a problem with the current state of MMA judging and refeeeing: "I have a beef with judging and refereeing. To me, I don't think you should ever be able to judge or referee unless you have a physical background in that art. I'm a big fan of professional football, but I'm not qualified to be a judge. In MMA, it's the flavor of the month and everyone wants to be a judge or a referee. I see a lot of referees that could use a little bit more instruction. I think it should be mandatory for these judges to go to Mauy Thai schools, go to Judo schools, go to Greco Roman schools, go to freestyle wrestling schools, Kempo, Shotokan, Taekwondo, all those schools and learn a little bit of everything. You want to know if a body slam hurts more than a left hook and how much damage can something get? You have to be on the mat or in the ring to know the difference. It's my humble opinion."
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In a move never seen in MMA, Dallas Mavericks guard, Jason Kidd, was fined $25,000 for supposedly publicly slamming NBA officials earlier in the week. The fine was announced by Stu Jackson, the league's executive vice president of basketball operations. Kidd was fined for comments made to the media on Monday following the Mavericks 95-91 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In his article entitled "
Gene LaBell Talks the Current State of MMA Judging and Refereeing
