UFC President Dana White slams the referees and judges of UFC 307 after several controversial calls took place throughout the event
UFC 307 Pereira vs Rountree Jr took place in Salt Lake City Utah last night. Despite the gap in ranking between Light-Heavvyweight champion Pereira and #8 ranked Khalil Rountree Jr, the main event delivered.
Rountree showed that rankings are nothing but a number causing Pereira issues through the first three rounds. But the accumulative damage of the powerful Pereira caused Khalil to wilt in the fourth round.
Despite showing great toughness Rountree fell to a vicious body shot from Pereira, giving the champion his third title defence. However, for all the excitement in the main event the card was littered with judging and refereeing controversies.
The Controveries in Question
The event seems to have riled up UFC boss Dana White as he shared his frustrations at the UFC 307 post-fight press conference. In particular the judging of the co-main event of Raquel Pennington v Julianna Pena.
The fight was close with Julianna Pena winning the fight via split decision. Despite this most fans and the UFC commentary team saw Pennington as the deserving party.
Earlier in the event, the officiating of Cesar Almeida vs Ihor Potieria raised some eyebrows. In the fight, Almeida landed a total of five eye pokes and low strikes on Poteria but the referee didn’t intervene or punish Almeida for the fouls.
Finally, the fight between Jose Aldo and Mario Bautista caused some frustration. Bautista fought a safe fight winning by decision thanks to a grapple-heavy approach.
For all his attempts Bautista failed to ground Aldo or do any significant damage. The crowd shared their irritations with Bautista showering him with boos throughout his post-fight interview.
Mario Bautista was undeterred to push the pace with the referee not forcing him to work. This led to a largely forgettable fight that fans were excited for in the lead-up to the event.
Dana White Unsatisfied With UFC 307 for “Atrocious” Officiating
When discussing the judge’s scorecards at the post-fight press conference Dana White did not hold back his thoughts. He said:
“It felt like I was at a boxing match in Ireland tonight… I thought the judging tonight was atrocious, I’ll just leave it at that. Atrocious.”
With regard to the lack of disciplinary action taken against Cesar Almeida, Dana admits that he missed the fight. He did state that UFC Executive Marc Ratner did not want to see the referee of the fight Dave Seljestad in the octagon again:
“[Marc Ratner] walked in right after and was like ‘That ain’t happening again tonight’.”
The key frustration White expressed to the media was the role of referees in ensuring fighters don’t stall their way to a victory. In a long rant, he stated:
“I always think that the referees should be more active on that, 100%, especially when someone keeps doing it to stall. If you’re judging a guy if it’s on control, this or that, if you’re not trying to fight then how do you win the fight? If you’re looking at attempted takedowns, well what about stuffing the takedowns? It was just madness.”
When asked by the media if there is a difference between offensive grappling and stalling he said:
“100%, when you can tell that a guy definitely doesn’t want to stand and strike and just wants to stall along the fence, that’s the ref’s job – when they see it continually happening and the guy is not trying to win the fight, then you keep breaking them up.”
Despite his complaints officiating is in the hands of the athletic commission which is overseeing the event. Fans will certainly get behind White’s distaste for fighters stalling, but whether it will make an impact is uncertain.
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