UFC Referees Need More Accountability After Latest Controversy

We all know what happened this past weekend when Renato Moicano was suddenly demanded to stand up from a dominant position against Tom Nolan, abdicating his body triangle, only to lead to his finish minutes after. Referee Dan Miragliotta was the target of a ton of criticism, and rightfully so, considering the actual damage Moicano was doing from the dominant position.

Dan Miragliotta’s stand up was only one of the many recent refereeing errors we’ve seen, all though it has undoubtedly been the most alarming, considering how much it changed the course of the fight. We’re talking about a fighter in Renato Moicano that lost half of his paycheck because of a refereeing mistake. We now ask: Should there be consequences for such errors?

Miragliotta is a human and mistakes happen, though when we make mistakes, we tend to face consequences. Recently, it feels that referees are consistently making mistakes, be it with late stoppages, bad standups, early stoppages, not taking points or a plethora of other issues. Some accountability is missing and we as fans have the right to demand that, not just for us, but for the fighters as well.

Big John McCarthy, known as one of the best referees, albeit out of current practice, criticized Dan Miragliotta, claiming the decision was outside the role. Together with him, former fighters Daniel Cormier and Aljamain Sterling criticized the decision. McCarthy explained how a lot of these issues could be related to the referee’s pay.

Despite what many people think, the UFC does not directly pay the referees. They rather work with the Athletic Commission and they are the ones that pay the referees as independent contractors. The base pay has been rumoured and corroborated by Big John to be between $1600 to $2000 per event. I’m not in the position to determine if this is a fair amount, though there is room for debate.

Ultimately, the evolution of the sport into something that praises entertainment could be creating some pressure on the referees, whose main job is to maintain the integrity of the sport. A move like Miragliotta’s highlight’s the preference for stand up over a slower paced body triangle, despite it being fully allowed in the sport. Ultimately, that is speculation, though again, a point to be debated.

In other instances like late stoppages, back of the head shots and other fouls and penalties, I do believe in full confidence, it is about awareness. The same way employees can get alerted for their lack of attentiveness at work, referees should be the same way. Commissions should be vocal about mistakes, and about fines and consequences for repeated errors. A world where there is transparency between referees, fighters, commissions and fans is the ideal scenario for the sport of MMA to flourish.