Salt Lake City — Fans in the building, media members on the ground and online, and even UFC CEO and President Dana White were all left fuming at the officiating that bogged down Saturday’s UFC 307 card.
“Atrocious” was the one word description White used during the card’s post-fight press conference, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press.
“I thought the judging tonight was atrocious. I felt like I was at a boxing match in Ireland tonight,” exclaimed White, clearly not a fan of some of the scorecards that were turned in. Tecia Pennington vs. Carla Esparza raised eyebrows early, especially a 30-27 scorecard favoring Pennington. Jose Aldo vs. Mario Bautista and Julianna Pena vs. Raquel Pennington also had many questioning what fights the judges were watching.
“I thought the judging was atrocious tonight, I’ll just leave it at that,” reiterated White a bit later.
Then there was the referee’s lack of action in Cesar Almeida vs. Ihor Potieria. Across three rounds, Potieria would eat no fewer than four eye pokes and a low blow. No point was ever taken, and the ref barely bothered to warn Almeida to keep his weapons under control.
“I missed that, I was in my room and we were talking to people,” admitted White. “But [Marc] Ratner [UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs] walked in right after it happened, and was like ‘yeah, that ain’t happening again tonight.'”
When the Aldo vs. Bautista fight, which Mario Bautista won off his wrestling despite not landing a takedown, was brought up again, White went a little deeper into the officiating. Especially the referee not breaking up the action against the fence, which boiled down to a lot of stalling.
“I always think the ref should be more active on that. A hundred percent. Especially when somebody keeps doing it to stall,” White suggested. “If you’re judging on a guy, whether it’s control, if it’s this or that, if you’re not trying to fight, how do you win the fight? And if you’re looking at attempted takedowns, what about stuffing the takedowns? Just, madness.”
White also agreed with the media’s suggestion that there’s both offensive and defensive grappling. He sees it as the ref’s responsibility, however, to keep the action flowing regardless.
“When you can tell that the guy definitely doesn’t want to stand and strike, and just wants to stall against the fence, yes the ref, that’s their job. They’re supposed to see it. When they see it continually happening and the guy is not trying to win the fight, then you keep trying to break them up.”
