Dana White had a lot to celebrate at UFC 307 but don’t expect him to applaud the judges or referees working the event.
There were more than a few controversial scorecards delivered — perhaps none more important than Julianna Pena getting a split-decision win over Raquel Pennington in the co-main event — as well as some gaffes from less experienced referees that marred a few of the fights on the card. When it came specifically to the scoring at UFC 307, White didn’t mention any fights by name, but he was clearly not happy with some of the results returned.
“I thought the judging tonight was atrocious,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “I felt like I was at a boxing match in Ireland tonight.
“I thought the judging was atrocious tonight. I’ll just leave it that. It was atrocious.”
It’s possible White was also referencing the split-decision win earned by Mario Bautista over Jose Aldo in another main card fight on Saturday, although he definitely wasn’t happy with referee Mike Beltran.
His ire came down to Bautista constantly looking for takedowns, coming up short but then holding Aldo up against the cage in the clinch. There was one moment in particular where Beltran actually separated the fighters, but immediately on the restart, Bautista dove for Aldo’s legs again and it put him right back in the same position on the fence.
“It’s common sense,” White said. “When the guy keeps doing it, and is doing everything he can to not fight, and not win the fight, as a ref, you should break it up immediately. If he just did it three rounds in a row, and he keeps doing it, and they get there, and he doesn’t get the takedown, give him a couple of seconds, see if he gets the takedown and break it up.”
White would actually like to see the referees get more involved in those kinds of situations where he believes stalling tactics are being employed to avoid potential damage from a striking exchange.
The same goes for scoring the fights because White doesn’t understand how someone like Bautista is being rewarded by winning rounds yet not inflicting any real damage.
“I always think that the referees should be more active on that. 100 percent,” White said. “Especially when somebody keeps doing it to stall. You guys aren’t going to f*cking let up on this are you? I guess we’ll get into it. If you’re judging on a guy if it’s control, if it’s this or that, if you’re not trying to fight, how do you win the fight? If you’re looking at attempted takedowns, what about stuffing the takedowns? Just madness.
“When you can tell that the guy definitely doesn’t to stand and strike and just wants to stall against the fence, yes, the refs, that’s their job. When they see it continually happening and the guy is not trying to win the fight, then you keep breaking them up.”
As much as White advocates for referees getting more involved in creating action during a fight, he understands there are limits.
Perhaps the best example of that came earlier in the night during the preliminary card when referee Dave Seljestad broke apart Cesar Almeida and Ihor Potieria just second after they got clinched up against the cage. The commentary team working the fights called out the actions several times as Seljestad almost treated the fight like a boxing match by repeatedly breaking up Almeida and Potieria during the fight.
What made matters worse was the referee failing to administer the rules properly after Potieria suffered through several eye pokes but there was never a point taken away nor was Almeida actually warned about repeated fouls.
Even though White didn’t see what exactly unfolded, he heard all about it afterwards from Marc Ratner, the UFC’s vice president of regulatory affairs.
“I missed that [fight],” White said. “I was in my room and we were talking to people, but [Marc] Ratner walked in right after it happened and was like ‘that ain’t happening again tonight.’”
Seljestad didn’t reappear at UFC 307, although the Almeida vs. Potieria bout was already scheduled as his final bout as referee on Saturday.
