UFC president Dana White relieved a fight judge of his duties at UFC Fight Night 48 this past Saturday. Not satisfied with the judge’s scores, White replaced him for the rest of the night.
As this was a self-regulated event, the UFC apparently had the authority to do this since Macau does not have a commission to do this. According to the Junkie article, White admitted it was not a good night for officials and shouldered the blame since they were in charge of appointing the judges for the event.
(H/t: MMA Junkie)
Payout Perspective:
It was an interesting move and perhaps a subtle sign for the commissions in places like Nevada and California that the removal of a judge during an event can happen if the judge is not doing his or her job. It also poses an uncomfortable situation where the appearance of impartiality is compromised. Essentially, if the UFC does not like the outcome of a fight, it switches the judges. Sure, there are a lot of decisions where the judging is quite poor, but you have to live with the good and bad. And while the removal of the judge on Saturday could be seen as a proactive move on the UFC’s part, it could also open it up to much more criticism.
I disagree in this instance Jason. Since the UFC was acting as the commisison, I don’t believe this opens them up to anything further, because it’s the commissions job to police the officials. People can say they appointed their pet judges ect. already. I think the fact that they were proactive, will look better for them.
The scores of the two fights the removed judge did speak for themselves. 2 fights and he was complete opposite of the other judges both times causing two split decisions. Letting this guy finish the event could have been disasterous!
First off, this was ridiculous. I think most people would rather see White get replaced than this judge. He should have never interfered with the judging. White doesn’t know anything about fighting, he doesn’t even know the scoring criteria for the judges based on his past comments that “damage” is what the scoring is primarily based. He should be the last person on earth who is appointing judges.
That being said, the claim that this could happen in Nevada or within any state athletic commission is absurd. White would lose his promoter’s license if he tried that crap there.
That judge was appointed by Ratner (Who was not present at the event but still appointed all the people regulating it). White just made the UFC look like an amateur promotion, not only did the UFC’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs appoint that judge, White disregarded the protocol of his own company, threw a fit and had his way like a petulant child. This sets a bad precedent for all international shows that lack a commission, If you want to keep your job, just score the fights as the crooked promoter would like you to.