UFC 134 Rio was a very exciting card from start to finish. The main card featured multiple knockouts, and the undercard provided back and forth action in many of its bouts. After watching one fight in particular, however, I took away something rather interesting. The third person in the cage has the responsibility for managing organized chaos, and that is a task like none other.
When I think of great referees, I think of Mills Lane. As a referee of numerous championship bouts, television judge, and originator of the phrase “Let’s get it on,” Lane commanded respect, in the ring and out of it. Only one person ever tested his mettle, Mike Tyson, and we all know how that turned out.
UFC 134 brought us a refereeing situation that while not as graphic as the Tyson debacle, was still very puzzling to watch. Rousimar Palhares almost made the world believe that he stopped Dan Miller in the first round of their contest, jumping on top of the cage and celebrating like he had just earned a title shot, while Miller and referee Herb Dean exchanged puzzled looks. Palhares was quickly called down and admonished, and the fight continued. Though Miller almost capitalized on the whole situation by knocking down Palhares, nearly finishing him, the positive outcome was not to be, as he dropped a unanimous decision.
Herb Dean reacted to and handled this situation correctly. Other, less respected or experienced refs might have been swayed by the Palhares celebration and assumed that Miller called it quits. Instead, Dean quickly brought the fight under control and got the action restarted. Since then, accusations have been thrown back and forth, as Palhares’s camp says that Miller verbally tapped and Dean should be to blame for the fiasco. Miller’s camp responded by denying the claim and pointing out Palhares’s track record of bizarre behavior in fights as of late; I’m not going to side with the Brazilian this time around.
MMA is in need of a larger group of referees who fully understand the sport. This is just as important of a concern as the lack of educated judges within the sport. On recent cards we’ve seen refs hastily stand fighters up, basically saving fighters from bad positions, and we all remember the Mac Danzig-Matt Wiman submission situation, due to the mistaken call by Yves Lavigne. Dean and “Big” John McCarthy are the closest thing to “Mills Lane” figures within MMA, and the relative paucity of respectable referees needs to be addressed.
John McCarthy runs educational courses that are meant to train inexperienced referees. I believe that the UFC should press athletic commissions to require its licensed referees to attend such a course, starting with the more prominent states of Nevada and New Jersey, which would cause other states to follow in line. Transparency is important within sports, and this is a big opportunity for MMA as a whole to show fans how hard they are working to correct the “known issues” within their sport.
