Wild R2 between Marcio Lyoto and Fabio Aguiar. Ref completely ignores illegal strikes, then follows up w/ non-stoppage at the end of the rd. pic.twitter.com/CEVrhoeuYb
One of the most common and dangerous problems in mixed martial arts is poor officiating. For every good referee – such Big John McCarthy and Herb Dean – there seem to be a dozen absolutely braindead officiators whose ineptitude puts fighter healthy and safety in extreme peril.
Over the years, we’ve seen some pretty terrible refereeing in MMA. The bumbling moron who lumbered into the cage to officiate a fight at Aspera Fighting Championship 55 in Brazil last night, however, might just take the cake for worst MMA referee of all time.
This ref was on duty for a welterweight scrap between Marcio “Lyoto” Alexandre Jr. and Fabio Aguiar. In the second round, Aguiar landed a series of blatantly illegal strikes: first, a volley of questionable kicks, then a meteor shower of punches that could not possibly have landed on the back of the head more clearly. For some reason, the referee let all of this fly, while Lyoto was pummelled into a barely-conscious heap. To make matters worse, the ref then ignored an obvious opportunity to stop the fight as the second round wore down, allowing a dazed Lyoto to absorb dozens of unnecessary and brain-rattling strikes.
See this referee’s bafflingly poor work the top of the post.
No word yet on Lyoto’s condition post-fight, but hopefully he made a full recovery. Hopefully this ref never steps into the cage again.
Do you think this is the worst reffing ever in MMA? Join the conversation in the comments section.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/13/2017.
Last Saturday, on the Fight Pass Prelims of UFC 204, undefeated welterweight Mike Perry sent England’s Danny Robert’s careening to the mat with a third-round knee and a followup punch. Though Roberts was clearly out cold, Perry then chased him to the canvas, where he landed a series of additional blows, while referee Marc Goddard watched on as if his mind was altogether elsewhere.
