Former UFC referee Mario Yamasaki analyzed the controversies surrounding UFC fights. Daniel Miojo e Valentina Shevchenko No. Night UFC, event held last Saturday (16/9).
In an exclusive interview to SUPER FIGHTS, Yamasaki gave his opinion on the decisions made by referees Chris Tognoni and Herb Dean, which generated controversy and protests from the fighters.
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Daniel Miojo was finished with a standing guillotine by Edgar Chairez in the first round, but claimed that he did not faint and that Tognoni stopped the fight prematurely.
The Brazilian pushed the referee and complained about the decision. After reviewing the images, the Mexican Athletic Commission changed the result of the fight to “no contest” (no result), claiming that there was a failure in the referee's interpretation.
Yamasaki compared Miojo's situation to the one he experienced in 2017, when he interrupted the fight between Michael chiesa e Kevin Lee, believing that Chiesa had passed out from Lee's rear naked choke. At the time, Yamasaki was heavily criticized by fans, fighters and UFC president Dana White.
“I think he (Tognoni) got ahead of himself. I even thought about my controversy with the Michael chiesa. If you catch someone in a rear naked choke, the fighter is defending himself and, suddenly, his hand drops, what do you think? he softened. But the Daniel Miojo It was different, he was standing up. He could have dropped it, like he did Jon Jones against Lyoto Machida. From experience, I would leave it. But he hesitated, wanted to stop early and what happened”, said Yamasaki.
Yamazaki comments on illegal knees on Valentina
Valentina Shevchenko tried to regain the flyweight belt (up to 56,7kg.) against Alexa grasso, but left with a draw and lost the new chance to return to the top. The challenger, however, complained about some illegal knees to the head when she was with three supports on the ground. Herb Dean did not intervene in the action and let the fight continue. Yamasaki commented on the Kyrgyz's illegal knee strikes and said it is a difficult controversy to judge.
“Each state has different rules. If you see the sequence of knees, some hit the back of the head and others hit the side. Some caught it in different locations. Valentina's hand moves up and down, it's not completely on the floor. A few knees must have caught on. My vision was from just one camera. But you, as a referee, how are you going to take a point out of a fight worth the belt unless it was a trauma that caused her to fall or a knockdown. It was very fast. Herb, at the time, let it go. But you had an argument to stop”, said Yamasaki.
