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Referee Yves Lavigne brought out the ire in Josh Koscheck this week, as he gave a very candid interview about the next Welterweight Title challenger on French Canadian website Canoe.Ca, that featured some very choice comments.
S.C. Michaelson at WatchKalibRun.com provided a rough translation of the things Lavigne touched on in the interview. Lavigne stated that Koscheck was "scared" to strike with Paul Daley in Montreal in May, and was happy to hold him on the ground. Additionally, he predicted that Georges St. Pierre would dominate Koscheck in their fight this December.
Now, Koscheck has responded, and justifiably doesn't want Lavigne to have anything to do with any of his future bouts.
In a statement released on his official website, KosMMA.com, Koscheck said the following:
"UFC referee, Yves Lavigne is clearly not suited to be a referee after his rant of personal attacks and opinions on me as a fighter. It’s supposed to be his job to look at a fight unbiased, but how can anyone trust this guy to fairly referee any fight ever again after his comments? It's scary to think this guy has been calling fights in the octagon for this long. It's very fair to say Mr. Lavigne will never ref one of my fights again. I would never put all my hard work as a fighter or my livelihood in the hands of this ref.
The (UFC) and the commission would be irresponsible to let him continue his job- any call this guy makes would have to be questioned. You call MMA a professional sport? Well, professional starts at the top. Never would an NFL, NBA or other major sports official state there [sic] personal opinions publicly about a player and keep their job. I now question every call Yves has ever made as a referee. Hopefully no fighter ever has to step into a fight with Yves Lavigne as referee. Better get that resume ready Lavigne."
Koscheck returns to Montreal in December for his fight with GSP, and in an already hostile environment he'll be hoping not to have to deal with Lavigne on top of it.
Penick's Analysis: I don't blame Koscheck one bit for his reaction to Lavigne's comments. I'm first and foremost extremely surprised by Lavigne's decision to make public statements like that in the first place. Considering that referees are supposed to be impartial bystanders upholding the rules in the cage, coming out with clear personal bias in an interview is crazy. If an NFL referee made public statements about a certain team in similar fashion, at best for them they'd never work a game involving that team again. More than likely they'd be on their way out of that profession. It was simply extremely unprofessional on Lavigne's part. That doesn't mean he can't perform his job well and can't be an impartial referee, but he gives off that appearance with statements like the ones he made. Now, the sport is really lacking in quality officiating, so I wouldn't expect anything to come out of it as far as his job is concerned, but Koscheck will have a very easy argument for not wanting Lavigne to work any of his fights in the future.
[Josh Koscheck art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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