(Anthony Johnson does his Bushwick Bill impression following his July 2008 fight against Kevin Burns.)
If Keith Kizer has his way, Dan Miragliotta and Steve Mazzagatti’s ability to fuck up fights by not paying attention could be severely limited by the year’s end. The Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director revealed yesterday on the GoodSports radio show that his commission is trying to figure out how an instant replay system could be incorporated into MMA, to be used only when a potentially illegal blow leads to the immediate end of a match (i.e., Mostapha Al Turk getting eye-poked by Mirko Cro Cop, and Anthony Johnson’s repeated pokes by Kevin Burns). As Kizer explained:
"Actually it was [UFC VP Marc Ratner's] idea years ago, and it just never went anywhere — mainly because of technology — but now I think we’re finally there…The problem with instant replay is, of course, even in football once the next play starts you can’t go back and review something. It’s the same with boxing or MMA. You can’t go back at the end of the round and look at whether something happened, say, one minute into the round. Had the ref called it differently, the rest of the round might have happened differently. Once there’s some action in that contest, you can’t go back…
Let’s say the referee doesn’t stop it and the knee was down and the guy got kneed in the head but the fight continued and the referee didn’t stop it, there’s nothing you can do about that now because the continuation. It would only be those situations where there’s an immediate stoppage of the fight and the ref wants to know was it an illegal blow, an intentional foul or an accidental foul that immediately stopped the fight. Then it would still be [the referee's] discretion. It wouldn’t be up to the commission. It wouldn’t be the corner. It wouldn’t be the promoter. It would be the referee’s decision, just like in football. If he looks at it and he can’t tell, you’ve got to go with the original call…I would think you could see [instant replay] as early as the end of the year if the commission agrees to make that regulatory change."
The addition would be long overdue. In the NFL, a blown call could affect the outcome of a game, but at least the players on the losing team still get paid their full salaries and keep their jobs. In the UFC, losing a fight means you don’t get your win bonus, and every loss can drastically alter your career path. It’s crucial that fighters don’t take losses on their records because of illegal blows that the ref simply didn’t see.
As for Mostapha Al Turk (6-5, 0-2 UFC), the UFC will be granting him another chance to make up for his loss via eye-poke, though Al Turk’s trainer at London Shootfighters, Paul Ivens, hopes Dan Miragliotta won’t be around for it:
"To be honest, what I will say is that I’m not a fan of that referee in question at all. I think he’s made a lot of questionable calls — twice now against real high-profile fights for our fighters. He was the referee for
James Thompson. I was there in James’ corner for that fight [against
Kimbo Slice], so that’s kind of twice our guys have been screwed a little bit by him. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but I think [Miragliotta] has made a couple of big mistakes now. I think he genuinely didn’t notice [the eye poke], but that’s his job. Him missing out on that for this fight and a previous fight — both in very high-profile fights for guys from my gym — is very annoying."
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commentsJust fire the incompetent - problem solved.
If only the Nevada athletic commision would fucking tell their referees to stop being so incompetent and fucking pathetic then we wouldnt have this problem.
WE ALL see the replays...
WE ALL saw (for Ex:) Al Turk get poked in the eye.. sure, it may have been after the fight.. but what's so hard about getting a little booth outside the cage to display replay footage..
Either way, I don't know how it would work..
I mean, you can't let a fighter go back to his corner, thinking he dominated the round, and then say "I just saw you grabbed the cage a few times, I'm going to have to take a point from you"..
And you sure as hell can't tell a fighter he didn't really win a fight after he's been announced the winner.. at least not in this case..
Oh, and Miragliotta & Mazzagatti are total garbage refs. It's a wonder they still have jobs next to guys like Yamasaki and... hmm, well Lavigne isn't looking too good these days, is he?
Who were the Brit sounding refs they had in at 99? Aside from a couple of quick clinch breaks and standups, they seemed pretty on point.
I've been saying they need to do something like this for a while now. It is needed.
is this suggestion unattainable?
Maybe if they cut the 30 minutes of fight previews, and start the fights right when the ppv begins, that will give them the extra time, should they need it, to run the instant replay. Just an idea. Also, if they don't end up having to use it, they would be able to show more undercard fights.
And I don't blame Paul Ivens for still being mad at Dan Miragliotta for the Kimbo/Thompson debacle. 13 unanswered/undefended shots to the head and you don't stop the fight?
Ridiculous.
Yea it sucks that you might get a loss via eye poke or groin strike (kongo) but thats the nature of being in a fight. I vote no for replay in MMA.... this would could very well cause some cards to go over the alloted time...and could prevent viewers paying for it on PPV from seeing the whole card (main card at least).
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