(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.com)
Jon Jones isn’t mad. He says this several times, and it seems very important to him that people understand it. If it was left entirely to him, he says, he probably wouldn’t be appealing his disqualification loss. That part was mostly his management’s doing. At the same time, he doesn’t think he got a fair shake from referee Steve Mazzagatti at the TUF 10 Finale. It’s not that Jones disputes Mazzagatti’s ruling that his downward elbow strikes were illegal — he admits that they were. But he doesn’t think it was what really caused the fight to be stopped, nor does he believe that Mazzagatti did what he should have done in the wake of the foul. As he told me for this SI.com article:
“A big part of it is that Mazzagatti just didn’t handle things right,” explained Jones. “You know, he’s standing over Matt Hamill, who can’t see at the time because he has blood in his eyes, and obviously he can’t hear, and Mazzagatti is standing there asking him if he’s okay. Then he stops the fight.”
If you go back and watch the video of the fight, what you see is Mazzagatti standing over Hamill and asking him twice, "Are you done?" Hamill doesn’t answer — maybe because he doesn’t even realize Mazzagatti is asking him a question — and that’s when the fight is waved off.
According to one of Jones’ managers, Jason Genet, Mazzagatti’s error was in not bringing in a translator to find out why Hamill couldn’t continue. If he had, Genet maintains, he would have discovered that it was the shoulder injury sustained during the takedown that was responsible, and not the illegal elbows.
But anyone who follows the UFC and/or Dana White’s video blogs closely won’t be surprised to hear that Mazzagatti may have made a crucial mistake. He’s the guy DW called "the worst referee in the history of fighting." Only somehow Jones had no idea about any of that until he got home and did some research on the internet:
“I didn’t really know anything about him until I went and read some of the blogs and found out that no one thinks he’s a good ref. The UFC seems to hate this guy. No one thinks he’s good at what he does. I guess this isn’t the first time something has happened with him.
“This is all so new to me. I’m learning a lot about the game through this. But hopefully this will help [Mazzagatti] too, maybe get him to buckle down and become a little better at what he does. This is important to all of us who do it. We have careers to think about and bills to pay.”
Funny, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard this from a UFC fighter. Or the second. Kind of makes you wonder when it might be the last.
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Comments
Thu, 12/10/09 - 04:36
is it wrong that when the camera had a close up of Hamill with blood blinding his eyes all i could think was "damn i bet he can play a mean pin ball"?
Thu, 12/10/09 - 04:37
It would seem that Jones needs to learn and understand a few things about the sport, organization, and reffing. Summed up in the simple sentence; 'You can't throw illegal strikes just to claim after that you somehow know the ref's job better than he himself knows, even if that ref is Mazz'. Take your licks and move on. Breaking rules just to blame someone else doesn't do anything for Jones' PR.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 04:38
maybe the mazz looked at the giant cut caused by your illegal elbows and decided to stop it you douchenozzle bones. hate that guy. You threw two blatantly illegal elbows that lost you the fight its your own fault deal w/ it. learn the rules dumbass.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 04:47
Again, the beauty of the whole situation is that Jones' loss is 100% irrelevant to his career.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 04:54
I wonder if CP can reach out to Mazzagatti for a response. The guy does appear in the media from time to time (e.g., he was on Inside MMA recently).
Thu, 12/10/09 - 05:12
I think an interesting article could be written on the impact of poor officiating in MMA and other sports, and how other sports have responded to it. I've read a few interesting propositions on how to solve the whole "MMA referees and MMA judges ruining fight outcomes"-problem, such as encouraging retired fighters to become refs and judges (which would have several advantages and disadvantages). I wonder if there will be a point in the future of this sport where fans go, "Remember when MMA had awful judges and screwball referees fucking up fights left and right?" Or is MMA ultimately too complex and dangerous a sport for the officiating to ever run soundly? Big John should go back to the Octagon.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 05:14
I totally agree.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 05:19
Bones can go fuck himself. So can Steve M, for causing yet another controversy (even though he's right this time).
Thu, 12/10/09 - 05:24
@ One Two- you are an idiot. Hammil was cut before those last two elbows. Sounds like you are going to cry too. Haha baby.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 05:36
Geez Jones who cares. It's not like you move to the bottom of the pecking order for your "loss". BJ Penn had his greasegate cry-fest, I think CP should have a contest for what to name this fiasco.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 05:37
Boner gate 2009
Thu, 12/10/09 - 05:54
Jones is the next Anderson Silva. This only ads to that comparison.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:08
your dumb.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:10
I am a pretty big apologist for the ref calling in UFC, but Mazzagatti fucked this up royal. How did he let Jones throw 3-4 of those elbows and not bother to step in and stop it until Hamill was out? He throws 1, stop him and warn him and reset it for the foul. Lesson learned, and Jones would have continued Hamill. Instead he basically let it slide until Hamill was out, then was like, welp, can't change it now, fight over! Is there a list somewhere of all his fucked up calls? I mean it's not just an amazing coincidence.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:13
Shit is hilarious. Mazzagatti standing over a deaf guy (with his eyes closed) asking him, "Are you okay." Mazzagatti's epic fail, however, is beside the point. Jones is a professional fighter. He should sit down and learn the rules of the sport he's making a living in. That would be the professional thing to do. It would also prevent him from losing fights that he dominates in future. Stop bitching about Mazzagatti's apparent lack of ability to not fuck up, get back in the gym and get another fight ASAP so you can entertain the fuck out of us with some more of your Tasmanian Devil-style elbows and takedowns.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:16
wow youre a complete doucher eh kimbo's bread (gay name as well)? you + cliff + gravity + sharp rocks that dont kill you at first so you suffer through seagulls eating your innards = best day ever.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:25
^^I agree with everything you said. Its on Jones, no one else. His mistake was the worse mistake of all the mistakes. lol
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:25
@ hotsaucemonster Yes, yet incredibly funny.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:31
@ Long Range Short Bus I just took a shit. Your dinner is ready. Enjoy!
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:34
what is even more gay is when he tries to get the mazz to stop the fight for him, i hate when guys do that. if hes so done then finish him don't beg the ref to do it for you. its like saying i can't actually put this guy away will you do it for me ref? @ 831 he had a cut and that elbow made it a helluva lot worse go to about page 7 for the gif, and yes now your the idiot. Jon "Weed snitch jones" needs to quit complaining that was a retarded move no different from wes sims stomping frank mir.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:36
It's not that he didn't know the blows were illegal, he just got carried away. Just like when mayhem gave jacare a vagina head. Get over the learn the rules crap, how many millions of punches to the back of the head or knees to the groin have we seen? All illegal shots that happen and also have stopped fights, don't even get me started on eye pokes! Fuck Mazz for fucking up yet another fight.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:41
WHY DO THEY LET THIS DICK REF FIGHTS??? Thats the real question here. He does nothing but fuck up fights and DW does nothing but complain about him, yet here we are again watching this D-bag reffing a main event. CP please do a background check on Mazzadickie and figure out where the hell he comes from and why they cant just can his ass. As for Jones hes less than a year into this sport and has a ufc contract and has demolished some pretty tough competition so far. Say what you will about "learn the rules and blah blah blah" .There's only so much you can learn about an entire sport that consists of about 8 different combat styles rolled into one plus contract negotiations plus training regiments plus game plans and then worry about at what angle my elbows are smashing my opponents face as this fight should have been stopped half a beat-down ago.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 06:51
You are still the idiot One Two. I said he was cut before those two elbows, obviously the last ones made it worse, but not that much. You are just a tool. I can recall so many comments that make you look dumb it just made me laugh. You damn pussy, get over it.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 07:06
I can recall a comment that made you look dumb, it just happened a couple of minutes ago. go up about 15 comments read it and realize how dumb you are.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 07:18
@Long Range Short Bus It takes about 4 mins to read to entire UNIFIED RULES OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS. Its not complicated, and its roughly the same in every promotion. "As for Jones hes less than a year into this sport and has a ufc contract and has demolished some pretty tough competition so far. Say what you will about "learn the rules and blah blah blah" .There's only so much you can learn about an entire sport that consists of about 8 different combat styles rolled into one" You can't actually mean that? Did you think that through at all before you typed it? I mean, I've read some ignorant shit and some retarded excuses in my day but this might take the cake man. I mean, wow. Holy fuck. Really? There is only so much you can learn? Are you fucking serious? Wikipedia the Unified Rules, look at your watch, TIME YOURSELF, and tell me Jon Jones hasn't had that amount of time to read it over atleast once in the last two years. Fuck sakes.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 07:21
@onetwo and 831son You guys are both right about a lot of stuff and I like reading ya'lls comments. Neither one of your are idiots. I think a lot of people should just agree to disagree about this whole jon Jones DQ thing (just like everyone else and I disagree about how bj Penn is a better fighter than GSP), and ya'll should be two of them. Let's all be friends. After all, isn't that what mma is all about?
Thu, 12/10/09 - 07:27
1st off good games, fights whatever, the ref should be invisiable. Nobody should say, it was a great game or fight execpet the ref did this or that. When my buddies and I watch a fight we look to see who the ref is. Everytime it is Maz everybody in my crew just yells, "No it is Mazagatti." Every time. Even if he got this one right, he has plenty that he got wrong. I don't agree with Dana on a lot of things, but I agree that Mazagatti shouldn't even be watching MMA.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 07:36
Alright, now that I've got that out of my system. @exes Fair enough, lets all play nice!
Thu, 12/10/09 - 08:01
@steampunk I think you mean "for fucks sake" no?
Thu, 12/10/09 - 08:07
;P Up here in Canada we say "Fuck/God Sakes". Not as a rule or anything, it just seems that colloquially we've dropped the "for". At least in my experience. ;P FUCK SAKES!
Thu, 12/10/09 - 08:27
Let's play a game. Who in all the potato nation writes the best comments? I'll go first: I like skeletor and steampunk(even if you see Canadian). Both are hilarious and knowledgeable at the same time. It used to be goog, until he stopped with the obscure Sean Penn references (what the hell!?), and started talking about mma.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 08:45
Hurray! I get a little excited, though. (see post above where I fly off the handle on Short Bus with little to no provocation! Hurray!) But thanks exes.for.iballs! I post mostly for my own entertainment, but its atleast partially for the rest of you. I like skeletor as well actually. Goat has had some good posts, and MyWifeWiffaCheeto or whatever the hell his name is has had some good ones too. Most of the regulars are actually pretty funny. Except for that Curt Sample dingus. That guy fuckin' suuuuuuucks.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 09:23
One-Two you're a fucking asshole
Thu, 12/10/09 - 09:27
@ steampunk: skeletor, SKELETOR!? That guy(?) hasn't the least bit funny or inciteful posts at all. This retarded baseball joke about a "fight" if you even consider a guy throwing an old man to the ground a fight is not funny. Wait maybe your both from Canada and it's one of those Canadian things like aye, aye? Now I get it. Ha.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 09:31
:
Thu, 12/10/09 - 09:40
Alright you caught me. I arbitrarily picked the first three people I thought of. Pure name recognition. I'll give it some thought and actually post who my favorite's are because I kind of like this idea. With enough involvement some obvious front runners could emerge and CagePotato could pick the top few and do a year end T-Shirt sort of a deal. Or maybe we can win whats left in Ben Fowlke's dad's bottle of Jamesons from the Gambling Enabler vid? Whichever is worth more than $12.50. Its actually hard to pick people you like though, its much easier to remember the Curt Sample's and UFC Fan's for some reason. No one tell them I said that.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 09:47
Might as well say "tuf guy" if we are just randomly throwing in crap posters in this game. Or "so cool" or whatever the fuck his name was.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 09:52
My favourite is UFC fan. BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
Thu, 12/10/09 - 10:30
ok bones made a mistake...how many eye pokes, low blows, punches to the back of the head have we seen before...maz missed a blatant knee to the face of a downed opponent earlier in the card...and he missed the first few 12-6 elbows too...dw consistently says the guy is the worst ref ever and that the commission not the ufc pick the refs...and jones has been nothing but a pro in all this...it his management team that is doing this...he took the loss like a man and is ready to roll with it but at worst this should have been a point deduction not a stoppage and maz sucks as a ref and the nsac and every other state that sanctions him as a ref needs to stop cause there's no way this ends well
Thu, 12/10/09 - 10:43
Everyone hating on Bones betta back up. If y'all hated on every fighter that committed a foul like yer hating on Bones, we could start a Haterade bottling company, raise a ton of cash and pay to get Mazzagats his mustache back. The argument isn't about whether or not Bones committed a foul. Of course he did. Fouls happen all the time, no matter what Disney tells you. There's enough nut shots in the UFC for Bob Saget to mount a full fledged AFV comeback! We gonna stop fights and lose our minds every time a fighter doubles over and dry heaves and you slightly, ever so slightly, experience a lower region sympathy pain? It ain't about all that. It's all about two questions. Did the foul end the fight? Was it deliberate? If the answer is 'no' to either of those questions then Bones DESERVES a no contest. That's right, my lusty friends. Deserves. Y'all are freakin out about rules. Well, the rules say Bones earned himself a NC with his lapse, not a DQ. As for his appeal, don't you dare compare him to Baby Jeebus Penn whose complaints were based on insane ramblings (Florian managed to text me even though I had my tinfoil helmet on) and his confusion about what was real and what grew out of his own dreams of GSP bathing in baby oil and showing up in Hilo all slippery and pliant with a boquet of flowers, the glint of golden sun on his chest and soft whispers of "it's time for your BJ, BJ." If you can't admit that Mazzagats pulled a Keystone Coppers 'Cecil Peoples' level fuckup, then, like my boy Yoda says, "That is why you fail." Bones has every right to say, "Hey Nevada, how's it goin? So yer boy Mazzagats fucked up pretty hardcore and it cost me a W, sooooooo, if you could go ahead and review the facts to see if anything can be done that'd be greaaaaaaat." If you don't think he has the right to ask for a review, you can just go ahead and lick his NSAC. Bones is a true man. Like me, he is mannificent. Bask! Bask in it! He'll move on from this incident with pride, knowing that he will some day be champ. In the meantime, all the man is askin, is for a lil' respect. Just a lil' bit. Jus a lil' bit. -The Mannificent Montrealer
Thu, 12/10/09 - 10:52
If deaf people cant hear, it's clearly their own fault. Mazzagatti is the best ref ever and Cecil Peoples the best judge, hands down. Jones won solely because of those elbow strikes, Matt Hamil was simply using the face to fist technique to tire Jones out. The 12 to 6 elbow is clearly the most powerful move in MMA even more so than Jon Claude Van Damme's dim mak attack.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 11:07
ManThe Mannificent... Says: Thu, 12/10/2009 - 22:43 After reading the first 6 words . . . you lost your audience so You just wasted your last long winded 14 hours on useless jabber no one cares about. Illegal strikes are. . . . uh . . . illegal. Steve, keep up the great work. Fuck you DANA, if Steve goes, you should get his face punched EXTREMELY HARD!! NO ONE could have called that fight better than Mazz. Seems to be political from here. FUK the UFC IF THIS IS WHAT "THEY" offer MMA!!!! LORENZO IS NOW DANA'S BITCH!!
Thu, 12/10/09 - 11:12
haha i've been posting to much i used to scoff at the people who were involved in comment fights and arguments back when TUF guy was around, now i found myself drawn into them god i'm losing it. haha. i just don't like bones jones after finding out he was a weed snitch naturally gonna take the other side. @ Xs4Iblls i'd send you a comment nobel peace prize if i could, thanks for checking me on gay internet fighting. haha and i think BJ is better than GSP also.
Thu, 12/10/09 - 11:49
@Montrealer Not only was that painful to read, but you're wrong. And thats way worse because I was hoping by the end of that you maybe would talk yourself into some sort of logic wormhole and all of sudden arrive at a correct interpretation of these events and I could think; "Hey, I didn't just waste my time readin that at all, this guy is an articulate and analytical interpreter of mixed martial arts rules and I should be thankful for the contributions of such a scholar." But you didn't, so I now I'm gonna repeat what I already posted in response to you on the OTHER post about this. Here goes, step by step. I'll hold your hand..... Jones very obviously threw those elbows on purpose, as he was looking for alternate ways to cut Hamill and end the fight. Heat of the moment, yeah, but still illegal and definitely intentional. You've tried to argue that he "didn't mean it". That's dumb, and I'm dumber for having to repeat it. The fight was stopped, due to illegal strikes, which caused a deep cut in the nose of Matt Hamill. The "deep and jagged" cut was enough to warrant a stoppage in the eyes of the referee (and later confirmed by Keith Kizer of the NSAC). Video replay confirmed that the cut was caused by the intentional downward elbows. At this point the penalty changed from being a points loss for Jones to a disqualification as the illegal strikes were determined to directly lead to an injury that warranted the stoppage of the fight. You can't argue the fight should've been stopped earlier, because it wasn't. It was stopped AFTER the illegal strikes, you can't erase that. This is not some hypothetical world in which Jones never threw illegal strikes, or that they shouldnt count because the fight "was already over". Whether or not Hamill could "physically" continue (Hamill maintains he was defending himself even though his shoulder was separated) it was determined the illegal strikes caused an injury that prevented Hamill from continuing. That is purely the fault of Jones. Not the ref's, not the UFC's, not the rules, not the clock's. Jones. Unified Rules: 13:46-24A.16 b) If an injury sustained during competition as a result of an intentional foul is severe enough to terminate a bout, the contestant causing the injury loses by disqualification. I hope the DQ stands, and I hope you stop posting rants about why it shouldn't because this is getting annoying. I dont like having to scroll so far to get to comments I actually WANT to read. Geez. Fuck sakes! ;P
Fri, 12/11/09 - 01:57
Fuck sakes steampunk, you are mannificent
Fri, 12/11/09 - 02:00
and all time greatest insight on the Taternation comes from none other than, the one and only, greatest to ever live, most influential and innovative person of this era, you guessed it, CAPSLOCKHAL.
Fri, 12/11/09 - 02:52
Steampunk I thank you for saving me the time and energy I would have used to say that myself. And also basing your words on logic, instead of a raging boner for Jon Jones. Skeletor, I have reviewed the responses and you win. Bonergate 2009! Get your popcorn!
Fri, 12/11/09 - 05:08
DW, and everyone else dogpiling on Mazzagatti need to chill. I've ref'ed several hundred karate bouts and, although it's a much different format than MMA, I can assure you that things happen fast and you don't always make the right call. This is especially true of the Hamill fight - the guy is deaf which created a very unusual situation that few of us probably would have handled just right in that situation. Easy to armchair QB - harder to achieve the perfection you demand of Mazzagatti. Even when you're just the ref, there's adreneline going on in the ring. When adreneline is pumping sometimes you do what your experience/training has taught you over the years. You react, you HAVE to in order to be quick enough. If Mazzagatti had it to do over, he might call it differently, but he had to make a right-now decision for the safety of the fighther. You can judge him when you've been there yourself.
Fri, 12/11/09 - 05:53
i'm thinking, that in a few months when this jones guy destroys somebody else, it will be " remember what he did to Hamil" not " he got DQed in his last fight.
Fri, 12/11/09 - 06:18
He was DQ'd cuz he is black. This is a hate crime!
Fri, 12/11/09 - 07:21
Classic, hot sauce, just classic.
Fri, 12/11/09 - 10:20
@Ghostboner Thanks man! Now I've got everything all neatly summarized the next time Montrealer posts the same ridiculous shit I can just copy and paste, saving us all the time and effort. @sj cheers! Man I'm excited for the fights tomorrow! W00!
Fri, 12/11/09 - 12:05
The DQ is a bitch. But Jones fucked up in the heat of the moment and it cost him. I really can't see why downward elbows are illegal but I am well aware that they are, and I'm sure he is as well. I think we can all agree that the only real effect this will have on Jones is that hi pockets will be a bit lighter until the next time he fights. We saw he was winning, we saw that he fucked up. The thing is, if Jones had won we'd all be bitching about how Mazagatti fucked up awarding a win after an illegal strike (kind of like he did for Burns vs Johnson). And if it had been a no contest, then we'd just be bitching one way or another depending on who we'd bet on for the fight/like more. As for Jones' claims to not know of Mazagatti's reputation, I'm calling bullshit.
Fri, 12/11/09 - 12:45
@MediumRare: Yes. @ everyone else: The world is full of fucktards, people, and many of you are fucktards. Fucktards do and say very stupid things on a regular basis and do not learn from their mistakes. Of course MMA is fucked up. Everything is fucked up. If you suspect that you may BE a fucktard, try to pull yourself up by your fucktard bootstraps and evolve into better life-forms. It will make the whole world a better place. That way, when we all have to drive together on a road, or we all have to go to a sporting event, or we all have to do anything together, we can have an experience that is not quite so fully saturated with bullshit. Steve Mazzigatti needs to pull good and hard at his fucktard bootstraps. Jon Jones is displaying an alarming and surprising fucktard bent here by listening to his douchetard managers. I hope he develops the personal strength required to tell those fts to f-off.
Mon, 01/23/12 - 09:47
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