Controversy struck at UFC Vegas 10 when “Slow” Mike Rodriguez was robbed of a KO/TKO victory over Ultimate Fighter 3 alum, Ed Herman, when referee, Chris Tognoni, paused the fight in the second round after Rodriguez dropped Herman with a knee to the body.
Tognoni paused the action because he thought Herman dropped from an illegal groin shot.
After allowing Herman ample time to recover, the fight resumed and resulted in Herman submitting Rodriguez in the last seconds of the third round by kimura.
UFC president, Dana White, was asked about the controversial decision making of Tognoni during the post-fight press conference. Here’s what he had to say.
“Nobody has fucked up more than (Steve) Mazagatti, and that was a Mazagatti moment right there for that guy,” White told media. “It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It was over, the fight was finished. That’s like him being knocked out, and saying let’s give him time to wake up and he can fight again.”
There was some concern about whether or not Rodriguez suffered a broken arm from the kimura finish, but White confirmed that he is okay.
“That’s what I was really worried about. This kid gets robbed like that, and he’s got a broken arm? He doesn’t have a broken arm, he’s okay, which is awesome.”
White also addressed the use of live replay at events, and said that he plans on having it in the future so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. Additionally, he confirmed that Rodriguez will be getting paid his win money as well.
“I was all over (my staff) tonight about replay. We have to have replay, gotta have replay. All you have to do is look at the replay that’s playing 6000 times while Herman’s on the ground and say, ‘oh shit, I made a mistake,’ you can’t see everything, they’re human. How you think that’s a groin kick is next level nuts, but it happened. We’re giving Mike his win money too, he won the fuckin’ fight.”
Although White didn’t say he plans on taking recourse against Tognoni, these kinds of mistakes have gotten referees such as Steve Mazagatti and Mario Yamasaki, banned from reffing in the UFC as a whole.
We’ll see what the future holds for Tognoni.
