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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Friday night's World Series of Fighting 3 event ended in a shocking and somewhat scary finish, as Josh Burkman choked out Jon Fitch under a minute. The scary part came as Fitch went out cold, and it took Burkman rolling over and releasing the hold, standing over Fitch's prone body, for referee Steve Mazzagatti to step in and realize what had happened.
UFC President Dana White happened to be watching the WSOF event Friday night, and immediately continued expressing his longstanding issue with Mazzagatti as a referee.
Glad Burkman stopped. Mazzagatti is a clueless idiot who will hurt someone and continue to ruin guys legacies. Much respect Josh
White expanded upon those comments on Saturday night after UFC 161, eviscerating Mazzagatti in a scathing, and lengthy, tirade.
"Does anybody here disagree with me that [Steve] Mazzagatti's a f***ing tool box? I mean, he literally did nothing," White began. "Fitch is out cold… [the guillotine choke], anybody's who's ever done any jiu jitsu, that thing does fucking damage, it hurts, and a guy's unconscious and you're squeezing his neck... as hard as you can... And literally, when [Fitch] goes limp, he goes limp, and he's out. Then, [Burkman] rolls him f***ing over, lets his head f***ing flop to the [mat] and then stands up over him. He's literally [standing hand raised over him] before Mazzagatti even f***ing gets in the picture."
"The Nevada State Athletic Commission is going to keep this f***ing guy around until he seriously hurts somebody. That guy is dangerous. He's dangerous."
Of course, White's opinion hasn't swayed commissions from booking Mazzagatti in prominent events and in major fights, and White claimed it's an ego thing on their part.
"They'll make him the main event now. Now because I said this, the Nevada State Athletic Commission will give him the [Anderon] Silva fight [at UFC 162]," White said. "It's not corrupt, when you talk about the Nevada State Athletic Commission and the fact that they keep doing this, it's complete and total ego. Yes, because I keep complaining, they will keep putting him front and center. Which is disgusting. It's disgusting. At what point do you realize that this guy is an incompetent fool, and he's going to hurt somebody? So I wonder what's going to happen when somebody gets seriously hurt in a Mazzagatti fight. What are they going to write it off to? 'Anything can happen. This is a combat sport and anything can happen'? This guy is dangerous.
"The guy has no f***ing idea what he's looking at," White continued. "The guy shouldn't even be watching MMA on television, let alone f***ing reffing it. Everybody thinks, 'oh, he just f***ing hates this guy,' I don't even know the guy! He might be the nicest guy in the world. On the weekends he might save small orphans from f***ing disasters for all I know. I don't know what the guy does."
"I don't know him at all. I know he should not be in a f***ing cage reffing a fight."
Penick's Analysis: There have been many prominent refs who have made many major mistakes in the course of their profession, but Mazzagatti continues to find himself in these spots of heavy criticism. Yes, in the heat of the moment, it's hard to catch everything all of the time, but when you've got tight submissions like what Burkman had on Fitch, you've got to be more aware of where things are. Fitch went limp, and if it weren't for Burkman being aware of that fact and releasing the hold, there could have been serious damage done. Mazzagatti didn't even make a move until Burkman was standing victorious. It was bad. But there's no accountability for these refs from the commissions, as their decisions are never officially questioned, and mistakes never sufficiently punished. It's a shame, because oversight and accountability could lead to improvement, but it's just not a part of the current system.
[Dana White art by Travis Beaven (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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