Dana White unleashes tirade on ref
UFC 161 may have been the premier MMA event this past weekend, but two other fights are getting all of the attention.
To bring you up to speed: Friday marked former UFC welterweight Jon Fitch's highly anticipated debut in the World Series Of Fighting. It was a headline bout in which he faced another former UFCer, Josh Burkman, who sought revenge for his 2006 rear-naked choke loss to Fitch.
As it turned out, revenge came quick: Burkman latched on a guillotine choke which ended the bout in a mere 41 seconds. In fact, the submission victory happened so fast, even the referee at hand — veteran ref Steve Mazzagatti — failed to notice the fight was over. It wasn't until Burkman, who felt Fitch go limp and then immediately released his hold, that Mazzagatti stepped in and finally waved the fight off.
UFC president Dana White was quick to offer his opinion of the incident on Twitter:
Then again, four minutes later:
And once more, in an epic nine-minute NSFW tirade, Saturday night in Winnipeg during the UFC 161 postfight media scrum ( WARNING: This video contains language not suitable for all audiences ):
UFC Tonight analyst and retired UFC lightweight Kenny Florian echoed White's sentiments Monday morning on Twitter:
Reality is @danawhite is 100% correct on Mazzagatti. Bad refereeing hurts fighters, fight orgs & can cause irreversible damage to a fighter.
— Kenny Florian (@kennyflorian) June 17, 2013
So, did Mazzagatti screw up? Should he be banned from MMA refereeing? Or did Mazzagatti do the right thing in letting Fitch continue fighting? Whatever the case, perhaps it will add fuel to the fire surrounding Florian's tweet last month about testing MMA referees for drugs.
Don't know why #mma fighters aren't allowed to smoke weed before fights. If judges can do it then the fighters should be able to as well. ðŸ˜ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ
— Kenny Florian (@kennyflorian) May 16, 2013
You can follow Carleton Curtis on Twitter.
