Yves Lavigne Admits He Messed Up
Lavigne stops Machida.
Everyone knows that the officials in any sport are human and make mistakes, but in the world of combat sports this can be a dangerous thing. The first fight of the night at UFC 96 saw a very early stoppage, when Shane Nelson was awarded a TKO victory over Aaron Riley, just forty-four seconds in. The greater travesty on the night was committed by Yves Lavigne during the Matt Brown vs. Pete Sell fight. Lavigne stepped in as if to stop the fight, allowed the fight to continue, then let the fight go on entirely too long. In response to the criticisms he has received, Lavigne spoke to Around the Octagon on Monday, admitting that he made a mistake:
“I screwed up. There’s not much to say. I screwed up the fight. I made a rookie mistake at the beginning and stopped it way too soon. I kind of restarted the fight. It wasn’t over at that point and I made the decision to look like a fool and say ok, keep going. I may have deprived Mr. Brown of an early victory but we’ll never know because of me.”
“I feel really bad. Fighters deserve the best. Instead of talking about Mr. Browns great win people are talking about a ref. Mr. Brown won with athleticism and tools he has and I’m taking the spotlight away because of my mistake. I feel really bad about it. He deserves better. He worked hard for that win.”
Lavigne insists that the stoppage in the earlier fight between Riley and Nelson had nothing to do with his actions, “No, not at all, it was not me in that fight. It’s my fault.”
After the fight Lavigne went to the back and checked on Sell, “Mr. Sell was ok, according to him and said I should’ve let it go.” Lavigne says. “I went to talk to him to see if he was ok. I do that on a regular basis after the fight. Sometimes with the adrenaline they tell the doctor they are ok but sometime later they are not. He really was ok.”
When asked if he talked to Dana White after the fight Lavigne responded, “I don’t talk to Dana White. The longest conversation I have ever had with him is hello and goodbye. I don’t work for him. I work for the Athletic Commission.
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F1RST!!!
What do you have to say then, other than first? Genius?
We don’t do that here, next time it will get deleted. This time I’m leaving it up to let everyone know that we don’t do that.
Hey they are human. Not every referee is a Big John clone. Mistakes happen.
I think people are making a little bit of a big deal out of this….. Lavigne is by far the best ref around aside from Big John. Everyone makes mistakes in the moment, nobody is perfect.
Lavigne did the right thing by letting the fight go on, Sell is incredibly tough. He did let it go a little too long but I mean Sell was still up, his hands were up, when he finally went down again, Lavigne was right on it. It was all just ugly and Brown didn’t help either, shutup and fight till its stopped, the ref decides when you stop attacking, not Brown shaking his head. Other fighters don’t seem to mind landing 4 or 5 blows to an already obviously unconcsious opponent …..
I think Lavigne is doing the honorable thing by taking it ALL on himself but it wasn’t that bad, I think we’ve all seen ALOT worse.
I agree, he owned up to it, no great harm done.
its life…
I know mistakes happen and admittedly I haven’t seen this fight but I feel like the window for a ref to make the “right” call is SOOOOO small and subjective that things like this are almost inevitable. Think about when a ref calls a fight, 2 seconds earlier / later can raise a huge controversy.
glad a ref atleast admitted he messed up…….Yves is usually a great ref one mess up doesnt cloud my mind hes still a great ref……dont get me wrong hes no nig john,herb dean or mario but hes good
all the refs i have seen in the ufc have stopped fights to early or to soon imo! the guys is not dead! i think it is a lot worse to stop a fight befor the guy is out! imo
Yves Lavigne just showed that he’s an honest straight up guy, he told the truth and was completely honest with his statement. Everyone makes mistakes so he should put that behind him and move on. Yves Lavigne is a true professional.
good point marvelknight4, at least he accepted blame and didnt try to lie. Think about it guys, when a fight does get stopped sometimes the losing guy is pissed because it is stopped too quick. i.e. kos’s last fight. he was out on his feet when that uppercut hit him, and he got mad saying it was stopped too quick. This is the first mistake I have seen yves make. hes a good ref. I heard about the earlier fight being stopped too soon. he just had an off night. but this is not the job to have if you were to have an off night. someone could get seriously hurt and thankfully that sell didnt get hurt.
I also think yves kind of got on dana’s shiit list by saying ” I don’t talk to Dana White. The longest conversation I have ever had with him is hello and goodbye. I don’t work for him. I work for the Athletic Commission.” I think dana has enough power to say he doesnt want yves working any ufc fights for a while, let alone ever again.
Yves wasn’t saying the Dana White comment to be a d!ck, it’s the truth, they do not work for Dana or the UFC. Dana may have power, but not more then the Athletic Commission. I don’t think Yves mistake has taken anything away from Matt Brown’s victory as he stated. Brown needed to have an impressive showing and this was it. He looked good with his striking, elbows, and knees. Yves made a mistake, it happens, he ain’t no Dan Miragliotta!
The earlier fight was a different ref, not Lavigne. I also don’t think that Lavigne is going to get blacklisted for saying he hasn’t talked to and doesn’t work for Dana. Dana said in the post fight press conference that Lavigne is usually a good ref, he just made a mistake that night.
when is big john gonna be back in the ufc ??
The UFC should bring Big John back for UFC 100. It’s only right since he is the first ref and the UFC should also induct him into the Hall Of Fame that night. They should induct a couple of guys.
Lavigne did mess up on Saturday, but there is a difference in what he did last saturday and other fights that get stopped too early. I think when Koscheck got ko’d it was a good stoppage because if the ref would have let it go longer Kos would have got put completely to sleep because if you see that fight again, when the uppercut hit Kos it dropped him and when he fell his arms were completely open for the other guy to really pound on him.
Big John is employed by the Athletic Commisions, not the UFC.. To my knowledge he is only cleared and allowed to ref in the state of California…. So ya gotta go…
Well the UFC should put in a request for Big John and work something out so he can be cleared to ref at UFC 100.
Big John has affiliated himself with Affliction, and had some negative things to say about the UFC and Dana White since his retirement as the “UFC head referee”. Though I don’t think they’ll try to keep him from reffing their events, I also don’t think they will be petitioning the Athletic Commissions to reinstate him, the will let him handle his own business himself.
I actually like Yves Lavigne, I think it takes a lot of humility to say what he did there. He knows he made a mistake here. The number one rule is to protect the fighters and letting it go on for as long as he did did break that. I’ve seen every referee make a mistake at some point. I do believe it was big john in the Hughes-Newton fight years ago, so no one is perfect. As long as it doesn’t repeatedly happen with the same official(cough cough Miraglotta cough cough) I think it sucks but that’s why there are rematches.
I also think it’s important to note Yves wasn’t trying to be an d1ck on the Dana White question. I think that separation is needed, if a ref in football was having dinner w/ the owner of a team we’d be calling for him to be fired.
It is also state by state licensing thing with officials and you do have to pay a fee for it and that varies state to state. So Big John would have to register w/ NSAC again. Also Big John would have to patch up his relationship w/ Dana White and the Fertitta’s before he would ever came back, he left on some bad terms w/ them.
Come on, Dan Miragliotta is awesome! He has only made a mistake in what 6,7,8….. fights?
well atleast yves recognizes his mistake and doesnt try to deny it. but i think he was scared of what happned ealier that night in the shane nelson and aron riley fight where the dumbass ref stopped the fight too early and EVERYONE knew it
The ref’s always get a bad rep no matter what they do. I think Yves made a mistake, owned up to it and will learn from it. I still believe he is one of the top refs in the game, so good for him by being honourable and stepping up to the podium after a mistake.
He’s right ref’s cant make 100% of the right decisons they’re going to make mistakes.
R.I.P Mask 3/11/09
They should induct a couple of guys.Wolf took way more punishment from Saunders at fight for the troops and noone really complained about that one.