Officiating in mixed martial arts has long been in question, with errors still prevalent in the sport’s modern era. Fans have been calling for improvement in both the judging and refereeing departments for decades, and one former UFC champion believes he may have a fix.
Even the best officials are prone to mistakes, as seen inside the octagon with the likes of Herb Dean, Jason Herzog, and Marc Goddard. Unlike other sports, one referee’s fault may not be too damaging, but that isn’t the case in combat sports, as one seemingly minor slip-up can lead to a lifetime of damage.
There have been many instances where referees are too late to stop a fight, allowing someone to take unnecessary damage. Hoping to improve this area of MMA, former UFC light heavyweight champion and The Ultimate Fighter 1 winner, Forrest Griffin, shared a potential fix to the issues.
“This message is in no way, shape, or form reflective of the UFC and/or their viewpoints,” Griffin said in a video on Instagram. “But, I had a thought as I was watching these fights this weekend. Why isn’t there a fitness test or reaction test to be a referee? Shouldn’t you have to be able to move x amount of human off of x amount of human, right?”
“Like, shouldn’t you have to react? Like, shouldn’t there be some formal testing to make sure that you’re about to, you know, intervene in the fight at the right time, and saving someone’s health? I don’t know. Why isn’t there? Maybe there should be.”
The sport’s officiating could use a big revamp. As Forrest Griffin rightfully stated, better training and stricter evaluation would ensure the best in class are hand-picked, guaranteeing fewer mistakes and better overall performances each week.
Listen to Griffin’s referee rant below.
