UFC Vegas 97 was not an excellent evening for officiating.
It’s not unusual for a fence seize or low blow to be missed and go unpunished. It occurs and is essentially understood to a part of the chaos of MMA. The extra irritating scenario is when the referee clearly sees one thing unlawful occur then actively chooses to not intervene. Not solely did that occur twice final evening, nevertheless it straight influence the result of two separate fights!
The primary and most egregious instance got here within the early “Prelim” match between Jaqueline Amorim and Vanessa Demopoulos. Amorim was dominating the battle when she superior into mount and beginning establishing an armbar. Demopoulos began screaming out that Amorim was grabbing the within of her gloves, which is unlawful.
The referee was proper on prime of the motion and appeared to acknowledge the compliant. He didn’t intervene, nevertheless, and Demopoulos was tapping to an armbar. Plenty of battle followers — myself included, to an extent — felt that Demopoulos spent extra time complaining concerning the glove hooking then really defending the armbar.
Then, the screenshots got here out alone, they usually don’t look nice! See for your self:
Fairly blatant glove seize and I can see why Vanessa is mad – it slowed her turning into the guard so Amorim took her again as an alternative of dropping place. But in addition Vanessa hadn’t switched her hips at this level so nonetheless wasn’t a sure escape pic.twitter.com/HegOGWE1wA
— Josie Aldo (@JosieAldoMMA) September 7, 2024
A referee proper on the scene and a complete fee to evaluate the decision, they usually nonetheless can’t get it proper. Demopoulos may file an attraction, however when do these ever work in MMA? It’s virtually sure that the win will stand.
A bit later, Steve Garcia and Kyle Nelson squared off in a match up of surging veterans. Nelson began robust with an early again take and management, however the battle modified immediately when Garcia reversed his means into prime place. He shortly ended the battle with a nasty collection of elbows, battering Nelson into submission.
The issue is that one of many greatest ones landed straight on the again of the pinnacle. Now, this is a little more of a grey space than the primary one, as Nelson was a shifting goal all through the alternate. All the identical, the referee was — once more — proper on prime of the motion, warning Garcia to look at the again of the pinnacle when the blow landed. It additionally created an enormous and visual bruise on the again of Nelson’s head, in case anybody was unsure that the connection occurred.
I don’t suppose Garcia supposed to hit Nelson at the back of the pinnacle, however as a result of he did, he scored his fifth-straight knockout win. Arguably, it’s one of the best victory of his profession, and it earned him an additional $50k.
The golden rule of MMA stands robust: if you happen to’re not dishonest, you’re not making an attempt!
For full UFC Vegas 97 outcomes, protection, and highlights, click on HERE.
