The UFC has upheld Erick Silva’s controversial disqualification loss to Carlo Prater at UFC 142 this past Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after deciding that referee Mario Yamasaki’s call of illegal strikes by Silva to the back of Prater’s head could not be reviewed.
The UFC oversaw the event itself with no applicable athletic commission in Brazil.
“Based on the referee’s verbal warnings and his determination that the blows were intentional and a disqualifying foul, this is not the type of decision that can be reviewed. Therefore, the decision stands,” Marc Ratner, UFC Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs, said in a statement.
“Recently, Zuffa has decided to implement the use of instant replay at all international events that are self-regulated, and to encourage all regulators to consider the feasibility and effectiveness of instant replay in the sport of MMA. While instant replay would not have reversed the call in the Silva-Prater bout, we believe that it could be valuable to referees and the sport in the future.”
Silva was paid his win bonus by the UFC despite being disqualified after stopping Prater with punches in only 29-seconds.
Pictured: Marc Ratner
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It really is ridiculous that they don’t use replay for situations like this. Obviously the ref made the right call by stopping the fight because Prater was clearly out. However, a DQ is supposed to be used when a fighter “intentionally” does an illegal strike, and if you watch any replay you can clearly see that Silva was doing everything in his power to hit the side of Prater’s head. There was only 1 illegal punch and to say that it was in fact that one illegal blow that caused Prater to be unable to continue is ludicrous. They need to implement an instant review after a stoppage to ensure that the proper Decision is rendered. The ref’s have a difficult job and have to make calls in a split second. The most important thing is the fighter safety, and that was accomplished, so why not ensure clear Decision making by using instant Replay?
“Based on the referee’s verbal warnings and his determination that the blows were intentional and a disqualifying foul, this is not the type of decision that can be reviewed. Therefore, the decision stands,” Marc Ratner, UFC Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs, said in a statement.
Seems pretty clear that the UFC is going to back the refs when they make a call like this, unless video shows the strike(s) wasn’t/weren’t to the back of the head.
Since you admit that at least 1 was, it makes perfect sense.
Nothing to see here.
Replay was not used because there was no regulating organization (i.e. Athletic Commission) to handle it. That will change in the future.
One thing that bothered me was the way Rogan went after the ref putting him on the spot, definitely not his job to question ref’s…seemed to be way too much despite the situation…I’d rather have video replays than Rogan demanding proof from him.
totally agree with that. It would be interesting to hear what Dana White thought of Rogans comments too.
Rogan was out of line and clearly biased for some reason … time for new announcer who is less opinionated maybe .. things have to change … Rogan has been good but is clearly allowing his ego to dictate his actions recently and has seemed to have been building up to this point too … soon Rogan will just be telling us what to do … maybe he can start his own fascist country where he is the boss of his minions …..