[juggo]

I just saw a recent IFL show which had fights from the IFL event in Vegas last month.

A couple really bad calls by Mario Yamasaki and Steve Mazzagatti on that show.

First, in the PeDePano/Feijao match, Feijao is frustrated throughout the fight as PeDePano constantly looks for the takedown, at one point getting mount and landing some good GnP, Feijao gets a point deducted by Yamasaki in the first round (don't remember for what, possibly hitting the back of the head). And then in the third after PeDePano finished another takedown and is in guard with a couple minutes left, Feijao throws a kick which partially connects with the side of PeDePano's head while both of his knees were on the ground. So what does Yamasaki do? Deduct a point? No. Give a warning but restart the fight from the same position? Nope. He doesn't deduct a point or give any strong verbal warning (that I could hear), he just tells him he can't do that and then stands the fight up, giving Feijao exactly what he wanted. He essentially rewarded him for an illegal blow. Bas called it "the craziest decision [he's] ever seen in [his] life." And sure enough, after PeDePano gets another takedown a minute later, Feijao throws another illegal upkick to PeDePano's head, this one lands more solidly, as Bas said Feijao probably just thought he'd get the fight stood up again since that's what happened the last time. This time, Yamasaki just calls the fight and it ends via DQ with less than 20 seconds left. Good thing for Yamasaki that Feijao didn't land some big shot after that ridiculous standup.

And then in the Whitehead vs. Vernon White fight, a bad stoppage by Mazzagatti. Whitehead has White's back in the corner and is throwing punches to the back/side of his head. Mazzagatti rightly warns him not to hit the back of the head so he continues punching to the side. The entire time White is covering up completely and few, if any, of the shots are getting through. As Whitehead continues to punch, he turns to Mazzagatti and says something like "He's tapping!" even though video showed he wasn't doing anything of the sort. I didn't hear Mazzagatti give any warnings (i.e. "get out of there"), he just hesitated a second and then stepped in to stop it. White, of course, hops up immediately telling him none of the punches were getting through and the ones that did were illegal (back of the head). Ken Shamrock is saying that him being in the corner prevented him from moving. Anyway, Mazzagatti should recognize who is fighting. Vernon White is about as durable as they come (in the last decade and 27 fights, the only guy to finish him with strikes is Chuck). Those mostly weak/blocked punches weren't doing any damage, it was obvious. No reason the fight shouldn't have continued. The look on Mazzagatti's face afterwards kind of told me he knew he made a mistake.

The only two refs I actually trust to make the right call in this sport are BJM and Herb Dean.

[Magooglie]

I don't know what Mazzagatti is thinking sometimes. He usually does a lot of late stoppages. But he could always get out of trouble from the White fight by saying White wasn't intelligently defending himself.

[Persistant]

its rough in there..you dont have any time to consider your decisions..you have to make the right one immediately....

[ensignkid]

That sucks, but its such a liability. One bad call where a fighter gets seriously or fatally injured and your career is gone and that fighter is badly injured or dead. Instant replay anyone?

[svelte]

i saw the same ifl matches

completely agree that mazz and yamasaki looked bad. Maybe for some reason the ifl fighters throw them off their game?

shows again how good big john mccarthy is and how valuable he is, having him in there legitimizes the whole sport for me. The ref doing wierd stuff or being inconsistent or taking points away all have significant impacts on the outcomes of fights and also on future fights.

[BayAreaGuy]

I agree. Bas said it best about the Tiger/Whitehead fight, it was like Whitehead was "calling his own fight" which is obviously nuts.

Ken looked freakin nuts after that call. It was the first time I've ever heard him curse. That wasn't the only time Ken went off on a ref, for his first IFL event he put his fingers on the back of the refs head and calmly said "let me ask you something, are punches there legal" and the ref looked scared said "he wasn't defending himself" (regarding a fight stopped early from punches in the back of the head)

It sucks how the Lion's recieving some bad calls cost them a spot in the finals.


BTW, Ken looked it great shape, looks a lot younger and in better shape then anytime in the past few years. I hope he kicks ass in his next fight.

[ShotgunOpera]

Originally Posted by Magooglie

I don't know what Mazzagatti is thinking sometimes. He usually does a lot of late stoppages. But he could always get out of trouble from the White fight by saying White wasn't intelligently defending himself.

Better late than early?

[ecchymotic]

TS brings up an interesting issue, one that i have wondered about for a long time. remember arlovski/cruz? not mario (herb) but there were "rules infractions", kicks to downed opponents and fence grabbing. herb left them in the posistion they were in after the warnings, cruz wasnt paying attention when herb said "fight", and the rest is history. the issue is being fair to the recipient of the foul. i totally agree with TS, cruz' preferred position was the ground, so why penalize him for his opponents foul?? i was there, and it was my impression that mario issued several warnings. you cant blame a language barrier because mario obviously speaks fluent portugese. he didnt heed to the warnings and got DQed. BTW, i dont understand why cruz had so much trouble taking him down and why when the single leg was not successful he didnt try something else. he really didnt look that good and the pitbulls were lucky to get the win. moral: dont gift the fighter committing the foul by improving his position.

as far as steve goes, i know how it looked. i think that if vernon knew that the fight was about to be stopped, he would have done something to avoid it. i dont know why he thought that it was OK to just cover up and do nothing, maybe it was a little quick. he certainly wasnt in any trouble injury wise. this type of stoppage happens not infrequently, and it wouldnt have been an issue if vernon didnt complain. his biggest complaint was that he was taking shots to the back of the head and steve didnt warn mike. he did take a couple, but nothing significant, IMO. moral: if you dont want the fight stopped, dont lie there and do nothing, you never know when the ref will stop it.

[juggo]

Originally Posted by ecchymotic

TS brings up an interesting issue, one that i have wondered about for a long time. remember arlovski/cruz? not mario (herb) but there were "rules infractions", kicks to downed opponents and fence grabbing. herb left them in the posistion they were in after the warnings, cruz wasnt paying attention when herb said "fight", and the rest is history.

Arlovski/Cruz was a very difficult fight to ref. I think Dean did everything exactly right until the the finish where AA was holding onto the cage. Even that, though, is somewhat understandable being that Dean was focused on the punches and Cruz' response to them so he'd know whether or not the fight should be stopped. Just an unfortunate circumstance that led to him not seeing the cage-grabbing. If he would have seen it, there's no doubt Dean would have jumped in, gave Cruz time to recover, and possibly even deduct a point from AA. That was an understandable error on Dean's part. Everything previously in the fight was handled by the book.

Originally Posted by ecchymotic

as far as steve goes, i know how it looked. i think that if vernon knew that the fight was about to be stopped, he would have done something to avoid it. i dont know why he thought that it was OK to just cover up and do nothing, maybe it was a little quick. he certainly wasnt in any trouble injury wise. this type of stoppage happens not infrequently, and it wouldnt have been an issue if vernon didnt complain. his biggest complaint was that he was taking shots to the back of the head and steve didnt warn mike. he did take a couple, but nothing significant, IMO. moral: if you dont want the fight stopped, dont lie there and do nothing, you never know when the ref will stop it.

Even if Vernon just immediately sits up and rolls his eyes or something, it would have been a bogus stoppage in my eyes. It looked completely clear to me (and the announcers by the way) that Vernon was not hurt in the slightest. I also didn't hear Mazzagatti issue any verbal commands like "Get out of there or I'm gonna stop this fight!" prior to the stoppage. You have to give fighters that courtesy when you're considering stopping a fight merely because of position (especially when everyone knows the fighter is not hurt and still able to continue fighting). And as I noted, know who is fighting here. Vernon White isn't a guy making his MMA debut. He's one of the more durable and experienced 205ers in the world. Realize that it's going to take more than that to get him in trouble or put him away. White stood toe-to-toe with Chuck and got knocked down twice before finally going down for good when his eye-socket got broken, the guy can take some punishment. That's why it screamed horrible stoppage when the Whitehead fight was stopped even though it was clear to just about everyone (even before the stoppage) that he was perfectly fine. I just can't justify that decision on any level. It's not as bad as the Yamasaki error because it's more subjective, but it was still bad.

[JimmersonzGlove]

Where's Yuji when you need him?