Big John McCarthy, where are you?!?!

bring back BIG JOHN the stoppages were terrible, the not standing up when threatening to stand up , the standing up when fighters were busy, this guy , Miragliotta needs to get of the roids and get out of the cage period, he is bad for the game. he makes mazagotti look good

Miragliotta definatley made the wrong decision, vera was covering up and looked fine when stopped. Although i agree with the decision in the kimbo match, thompson looked out of it. Bisping looked awesome, he needs a big name fight next with someone like leben to give him some much deserved credability.

he has no busness being in the cage with 2 pros. hopefully this is his last gig as a ref.

These premature stoppages are turning this sport into flag football. Maybe Dan Miragliotta has a problem doing things prematurely!! lol

Is that even a logical question? Of coarse he blew it. I am starting to see a trend with this guy and I don’t like it.

I watched the end of this fight several times and each time I thought Vera was blocking most of the punches. A close look shows many were landing on the forearms. Some were getting through of course, but with 15 seconds left he should have been allowed to continue. It’s not like this was vera’s first UFC fight or that he was looking totally rocked. I’m sure someone will come whining “you can’t question the referee! that’s his job!”

No one is infallible, especially not Dan Miragliotta.

Coering up in the fetal position and doing nothing to get the man off you is NOT an intelligent defense.

The referee is not your friend, he’s not there to do you favors and ‘let you take an ass beating for 15 seconds so i can get to the next round’.

COULD Vera have survived to the next round? Maybe. But should he have been allowed to eat shots while he does absolutely nothing but cover up in the fetal position for the last 25 seconds of a round? God no, and anyone who thinks he should is a fool.

Covering up in the fetal position and doing nothing to get the man off you is NOT an intelligent defense.

The referee is not your friend, he’s not there to do you favors and ‘let you take an ass beating for 15 seconds so i can get to the next round’.

COULD Vera have survived to the next round? Maybe. But should he have been allowed to eat shots while he does absolutely nothing but cover up in the fetal position for the last 25 seconds of a round? God no, and anyone who thinks he should is a fool.

Miragliotta your fired!!!

Miragliotta is Out Of CONTROL, somebody do something Please!!!!People pay money too see a fight be won bye a fighter not for a ref to choose a winner…..maybe he has side bets on the fights he refs going on ….somebody needs too look into this MORON!!!!

I’m sure that Dan is trying to do his best, but sometimes your best doesn’t cut it. I’m pretty confident that I couldn’t do a better job than he does, therefore I don’t ref. I suppose it will ultimately come down to the different athletic commissions deciding not to hire the guy for their sanctioned events. So what I’m wondering at this point is this – did the UFC hire him for this event since it was in London? From what I understand there is no regulating authority over there.

On a side note, I wonder if the UFC conducted drugs tests for this event, and if so, did they test Alves who failed once prior.

Rumors are going around that former WWE WrestleMania XXIV headliner Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who retired from boxing yesterday, is set to sign with UFC on Thursday. UFC head Dana White is promising a major announcement that day.
… coincidence that he just retired from boxing for apparently no reason??

Stop boo-hooing you got your ass handed to you,you dont belong with the elite fighters,face it werdum is a better fighter than you

Werdum is a champion grappler, thus I can assure you all that Vera was not getting out of that mount. From that position, all Vera could do is cover up to defend.

During such ground and pound situations, fights will be stopped fairly when either A) the fighter eats some serious shots and begins to look hurt or even unconscious, B) the fighter rolls up on one side and doesn’t tell the ref not to stop the fight, or C) the fighter taps.

Vera did none of these things. He was MOVING, he was assuring the ref he was fine, and he may have taken a few punches but he was still in the fight.

The stoppage was early. I say this not as a conspiracy theorist. Furthermore, I am both a Vera and Werdum fan.

Miragliotta not only took the chance for a win away from Vera, but he left Werdum with an unconvincing victory.

Bummer.

brandon probably could have continued, but when you dont defend like he did the ref is gonna stop it. i dont care much for miragliotta either, but cant complain about this one. i dont here much complaining about the day stoppage. bisping was pounding away, but some of his punches werent landing flush either. with a fighter curling up in the fetal position and or the “turtle” is almost as good as a tap-out imo. brandon still has alot of talent, but def needs to move to 205!

lousy ref, he blew it again, the ufc needs to just not use him at all period

I’m siding with Vera on this one. This guy is stopping fights too early. Vera was trying his best not to get hit because he knew the round was ending soon.

Dan is the worst ref and should be fired immediately from all organizations, Brandon was alright you could tell..he got up right away and was not dazed at all. It was just the position Brandon was in when he was eating those elbows, he was perfectly fine it was a premature stoppage.

MIRAGLIOTTA SUCKS!!!!
Brandon could continue in this fight, Kimbo was mounted for 2 minutes and Vera was 15 secons WTF!!!

Unfortunately i have to agree it was a brutal stoppage. Vera should know better than to just lay there turtling and say he’s ok though. Also unfortunately i believe the refs aren’t paid for by the UFC. They are employees of the SAC’s i believe thus firing him is not up to Dana. All in all though this card was the worst i’ve seen in a long time. Early stoppages, illegal knees, the thrashing of an over the hill legend and even the comment by Dana that he just wants to get this card over with because of all the injuries and so forth proves that this card was doomed from the beginning.

I just watched the fight again. I have to say that the ref is right on this one. Vera got mounted at around 33 seconds left in the round, then for 15 seconds did absolutely nothing to improve his position. He just squirmed and remained in the fetal position taking shots and that is not intelligently defending yourself. He did not take any of the proper steps to escape from guard. The argument that there was only 15 seconds left is no good excuse for not defending yourself properly. Personally I would have waiting 5 more secons, but thats the refs decision. Sorry Vera, you loose.

Fire Miragliotta

That was a good stoppage. The fetal position is not intelligent defense. Werdum handed him his ass

http://i29.tinypic.com/33onzgo.jpg

We need some consistency in the reffing. First of all Miragliotta isn’t consistent with himself from fight to fight. Secondly, refs aren’t consistent with each other. Look how long Joe Lauzon was allowed to turtle when Florian had him mounted. Yes, he tried to escape with moderate success, but was allowed to take his sweet time between escape attempts.

I love these Miragliotta apologists who on one hand say that kimbo wasn’t being hurt so it shouldn’t have been stopped even though he wasn’t improving his position or defending himself intelligently, but then say that since Vera wasn’t improving his position or defending himself intelligently, he should have been stopped, even though he wasn’t getting hurt.

I hated the stoppage but as a fighter you just have to know that you when you cover up without trying to improve your position or mount an attack you run the risk of a stoppage. The ref has no way of knowing how hurt Vera was when his head is down so he will always err on the side of caution. And 15 seconds is still more than enough time to take serious punishment so I don’t see that as a valid excuse. Like I said I didn’t like the stoppage but Vera needs to do a better job in that spot so the ref isn’t even put in the position of having to consider the stoppage. Hopefully all fighters take note.

its hard to get mad because its for the safety of the fighters, but at the same time, its also screwing the fighter over if hes not in a lot of trouble, comebacks can and have happened.

Anyway that’s two losses in a row for Vera. Tim Sylvia and Werdum. Vera had better choose his next fight carefully. Either that or EliteXC here I come.

i just got done watching friday’s InsideMMA and this is the last episode of it that i will watch with its pro-eliteXC bias. they made it sound like it was card of the year and then they spent 15 minuted defending Dan. what a bunch of crap. Shaw must be paying off Bas Ruten and Kenny Rice too.

Vera is a just a big baby who talks a lot of crap then cries when he doesn’t get his way.

Miragliotta should go to the NBA or the WWE were all the lousy phony refs are.

Worst ref ever. Might as well have Severn as a guest ref. Oh and can we test the Ref’s? ’Cuz if we did would Dan pass?

Vera was not in the Phetal position, He was constantly try to move his head and blocking many of the shots. Not once was he rocked or hurt.

Lambert on the other hand sees the deck 3 times and is flapping around on queer street for a good 30 secs and many devastating shots and he gets longer then Vera.

Listen, just getting mount and throwing shots that are not rocking a fighter should not just mean the fights over. If thats the case full mount is the best place to be in any fight. You dont even have to come close to hurting or stopping the guy, just throw shots to his arms. A fighter needs to be hurt and curling up, not moving and blocking. Vera was rolling side to side and moving his arms. Kimbo curled up and did nothing but absorb the shots, that being said im not sure that should have been stopped. None were landing. But he wasnt doing anything Vera was moving. and trying. Getting someone off you from the mount is hard Im not sure what he could do. Many fighters take 100 times more damage then that in stand up battles.
It was crazy. Also you have to consider the time left.

Did he ref any of the other fights after he robbed Vera? I dont think I saw him after that.

MIRGILAFAGGA　 SUCKS

I would love to hear an interview with him trying to justify this stoppage, and then answer how the damage Werdum did in 10 seconds was more harmful then Thompson elbowing Kimbo for 60 seconds AND he had Kimbo’s arm pinned.

EVERY sport wants ref’s to be CONSISTENT, that is all you can ask.

It is clearly obvious he got paid off by Shaw. I heard in an interview that he only makes $250 a fight….you telling me if you got paid that little you wouldn’t be open to a nice little 100K check from the promoter?

$ is evil….MIRGILAFAGGA is on the pay

maragliotta is an idiot, when a fighter is hurt he stops moving and his arms lose strenght. You could clearly see that brandon was fine.

It’s pretty obvious his attitude: he stops fights too early, thompson wasn’t getting battered and he was still on his feet but he stopped it.
same thing here.

he kills good fights.

Liddell should knock all of you, the stupid ref, and mayweather out cold. matter of fact go ahead and hit me too chuck so I don’t have to read this anymore.

I don’t see anything wrong with the stoppage. If you are laying flat on your back and taking punches and just sitting there you are NOT intelligently defending yourself. As a grown ass man and a fighter Vera should know that by now since he was beaten guys that same way.

And it doesn’t matter how much fucking time is left. If your gameplan was to take the next 15 seconds of punishment and lost thats your fault as a fighter. The ref isn’t looking at the clock, they’re not suppose to. The only they know the time when the round first starts, when the beat the sticks or the horn.

Dan is the biggest fuck up in the history of mma,the guy screwed up twice in the row.He is a big john wannabe and I don’t think that you going to see him in UFC again.

Vera was getting his a$$ handed to him. That being said, he was not trying to improve his position but at the same time he was blocking the punches very effectively. The real question to me is the inconsistency of the ref. How can he allow kimbo to take UNBLOCKED SHOTS FOR OVER A MINUTE pitty patty thought they may be and allow that fight to continue and stop the vera fight. Something stinks very bad here and this ref has been exposed as a fraudster.

Dan should get a knew job cause he is a terrible ref!
Vera obviously knew he had time left and was gonna ride the time out. And along with that was constantly saying he was fine (just like what kimbo did) Vera was not even hurt! I just hope he gets a rematch since Werdum wont get a title shot till the show and Nog vs Mir is over.

Rematch!

OOOOF!!! what is this!!!!! pleaaase what was dan doing? he should have waited atleast 10 seconds.. it’s not girls fighting…

Anybody know if Dan Miragliotta was one of the judges for the Randleman – Rutten fight? I just re-watched it and buffer says “Don Miragliotta scores its for Rutten”. Wondering if its the same guy. (If you haven’t seen the fight, its widely regarded as one of the most controversial decisions in UFC history).

Herb is the best referee in the game!

Post fight interview: Werdum is not giving Vera a rematch! what a pussy!

Wow @ all the Vera fans.

Listen…

Brandon Vera was getting owned. He was mounted, he was not intelligently defending himself. He was not able to reverse the position. At least five or six of the 15 or so unanswered punches got through cleanly, knocking his head back. I’m sure he was warned that the fight would be stopped if he didn’t fight back; and that was that.

Dan let Kimbo get punched fifty times because the guy punching him might as well have been hitting him with a pillow—ZERO power.

Vera’s head was getting knocked all over the place and he was basically in the fetal position with this hands covering his head—he couldn’t even see the punches that were hitting him.

No way this was a bad stoppage. If you don’t want the ref to stop the fight, don’t get mounted, don’t get hit in the head 20 times without answering back; at least make AN ATTEMPT to escape…even give your back to avoid the onslaught. But no, Vera did none of this. He laid there and took shot after shot—this is not UFC material. UFC fighters are intelligent, they don’t “take beatings and then see what happens in the next round”. The fetal position is not an intelligent defense.

Miragliotta stinks. Ok, so the Vera stoppage was ok but the Kimo 2nd round? Give me a break.

I’m sorri, yes, the brandon vera fights stoppage was bad!
That being said Brandon Vera had at least 3-5 chances to push the pace for his advantage and never did.
Brandon was taken down (by double underhooks and a high body lock,( ala grecko roman) that finally ended a light heavyweight vs. a heavyweight. Vera looked to never have a clear gameplan, was Vera gonna keep it standing if so why so many clenches and how come Vera never utilized his bodylocks that he had on werdum 2-3 times.

THe question is WHAT WAS VERA THINKING?!?!?!!?

Everybody talks about rematches all the time, and they never happen, unless they are really high profile fights, this won’t either and It is cool to me because we wanted to see how they would match up and we did.

Now let’s see them against somebody else.

I’ve read the majority of the comments to this post. I think the real anger doesn’t come from this fight being called too early, but, from the inconsistent officiating.

Kimbo – Crucifix position with both arms trapped – 60-70 unanswered shots. May not have been power shots, but, Kimbo’s arms weren’t blocking. His face took all 60-70 blows. But, the fight isn’t stopped because Kimbo verbally says he’s ok. Where’s the intelligent defense there?

Vera – Full mounted with 30 seconds left. Both arms up and guarding strikes. About 20-25 strikes are given, but, majority of the strikes are blocked. And the fight is called with 15 seconds left.

This was a horrible call and horrible inconsistent reffing. Yes, the clock SHOULD be considered in the ref’s decision. The clock is used as strategdy in every sport. With 15 seconds left, and the fighter’s arms are still up – I think the clock should be considered. Vera wasn’t getting KO’d in that position, he wasn’t taking damage. And like a guy who burns his arms out with a failed guillotine choke, Werdum may possibly punch himself out, changing the fight in the 2nd.

Its all speculation. But, if you’re on the side of Mirgliotta, than you’re not paying attention.

DAN M. F’ING BLEW IT! AGAIN!!!!!!!!

Miragliotta is a damn joke. If a guy screwed up at his job as seriously as Miragliotta did, they would of been fired on the sport or at the very least reprimanded harshly. I bet this clown doesn’t even get spoken to about his shitty performance. That’s the worst part about all of this. He screws up peoples professional lives by making horrible calls and nothing happens to him at all. He doesn’t get suspended for failing to be professional, unlike the athletes he is expected to over see. Bullshit, these refs need to be delt with when they suck.

There was 20 seconds left on the clock.

Waiting for the clock to run out while you’re stuck in the mount and getting pounded IS NOT intelligently defending yourself.

whats done is done werdum has the win, its over now vera, now stfu. Even if there was 15 seconds left werdum probably would have finished him with 2 seconds left. Overall Dan M. is a decent ref i remember when people were saying the same thing about steve mazagatti about two years ago.

KEVIN: (The Kevin i was going back and forth with yesterday): 3 Things; 1)I hope you got my apologies in the forum we were in yesterday, if not go read please. 2) We definitly agree on Alves being impressive but it not meaning much since BJ will get there first without a doubt and in a first title defense BJ would school his overweight *ss!!! 3)Happy (LATE) Birthday G! (I spent some of yesterday reading most of your post’s over time, hence the apology in the other forum.) I also posted the B-Day note i the UFC85 play-by-play forum where i saw you mention it. I also saw that your a cali native, im from the Bay Area but im posted up in Sac for a while. Let me know if you reside near by, if so, UFC87 at my place, on me, BIG screen, beers, and possible bong rips to make GSP’s call out of BJ Penn as funny as it should be! “Do yuu fans ant to see GSP/BJ Penn, can E andle my riddim?”

Of course the ref has to know at least approximatly how much time is left. I said it after last weekend any org that uses this guy is risking its credibility. Brandon wasnt hurt and he didnt turtle up. he was on his back still moving and defending you dont lose fights just because youre mounted. That guy shouldnt be allowed to ref a ToughMan contest.

Vera didnt put himself in that position by the way he was put there by one of the best grapplers in the world. Escaping that mount wouldve been a lot harder and more risky than letting the time run out while not taking any damage.

Miragliotta, stupid!

Dan “The Stoppa” Miragliotta strikes again!

Why is this guy getting so much work? The next best ref after Big John McCarthy is Yves Lavigne. Top refs right now…

1. Yves “Somersault” Lavigne
2. Herb “The Predator” Dean
3. The guy who let Sakuraba almost die (Pride)
4. Mario Yamasaki
5. Steve Mazza"stop"pi
6. Someone else
7. Dan “The Stoppa” Miragliotta

BJM is still the best though.

Yves Lavigne FTW!!! watch the Paul Taylor Marcus Davis fight, best example of how a ref should treat a fight!

Question… what was worse, this early stoppage? or Marquardt losing a decision because of Herb Dean’s mistake? I have to go with number 2, eh? I hope he feels like a chump after he watched that replay…

its a fight so whatever the fuck happens, happens.

mania when the hell are you gonna post up the world victory road results?

BRENDAN, I TOTALLY AGREE!
HErb DEan was for a long time a questionable ref, as we should all know, and during the nate fight JOe rogan wad praising Herb as the best in the buisness since Big John retired,.
I was like thatnks finally someone in the UFC mentinoned that John retired, as i as everyone should have been mad at how the ufc did nothing foe big john even during his last know ppv NOTHING!! NO RESPECT=no more respectfull ref’s.

THAT NATE fight should have gone no nate ..i agree in one pont deduction, the knee, but the other shot was to the side of the head. Even the reply at the ppv showed this, the fight should be overturned BUT silly judge peoples scored it against NATE too.HE was the same judge to give that fight in UK to BISBING against MATT HAMMIL

as a brandon vera fan, i thought the stoppage wasnt that bad. its not the refs job to check the clock to see how much time is left. how would that be fair to werdum?? werdum earned the takedown and mount position. he landed half of the shots, and vera was just covering up. there were 20 seconds left in the round – thats ALOT of time.

maybe the ref coulda let it go a bit longer, but not for another 20 seconds. vera wasnt even tryin to get out. he wanted to ride out the round.

Big Dan sucks. period.
He needs to be sacked ASAP.

Yeah Yves Lavigne is a mad referee, he needs to ref more.

dana white should ref then everyone can blame him for everything

Was this same ref for Alves and Karo fight?

Ahh thanks man

Mazzagatti all the way!

this is the same ref that stopped the houston alexander vs thiago silva fight early at ufc 78.

Joe it’s time for Rogaine Rogan actually refered to Herb Dean as the best ref in MMA!!riiiiiiiiight. i think it’s a toss up for worst ref between Dan Mirgliotta and Herb…though i’d say that Herb is actually an idiot while Mirgliotta is just corrupt, i don’t know what is worse.
Yves Levigne is a fantastic ref, Mazzagatti is very good as well yet you hardly ever see them.
…..and who names someone HERB anyways? that’s almost as bad as Colin (to think that someone would give a poor helpless baby the name of something that stores your shit is so not fair).

vera must fight Dan Migrialota next

he blew it harder than jenna did on the 10,000 guys b4 tito.just let these guys get ko’d already it’s not like its a fight to the death.

I’m not really an MMA follower, so somebody please educate me on this. Countless times I read that Brandon’s going to fetal position is a bad defense. How bad? Is it actually in the refereeing book? In the everyday world going into the fetal position is a very effective defense that it is actually taught in safety classes. In case of avalanche curl up, this provide you a breathing room. In case of a BEAR ATTACK OR DOG ATTACK curl up to shield your vital organs from the claws and fangs. In boxing’s rope a dope the fighter literally curl up and let the other fighter do his thing to tire him down.

So what’s the difference when you do it in an MMA fight especially with 15 seconds to go in the round? Should fighters there expose their jaws and face instead? For me, anybody who does not expose his jaw and face to attack is defending intelligently. Vera is not hurt, he could have been hurt later, but stopping a fight on a “could have” premise when ground condition indicates otherwise is idiocy. By that, they could make a winner to whoever can say “I’ll beat your ass so badly you will go out of the ring in the stretcher” first. Could have…

dan migrialota was the guy that let kimbo get beat down for just under 2min in side mount but calls this.

Dont believe what you hear…believe what you see. Remember this? lol! Two loses. Thats what I see.

Miragliotta sucks and should be destroyed.

It’s guys like this that will push MMA the way of boxing.

Remove the cancer now! BEFORE IT SPREADS UNCONTROLLABLY!!

Brandon Vera do you want everyone to think you’re getting killed? You were not defending yourself in an intelligent manner, so the referee had to put a halt to the match. You are a very stubborn man, Vera.

I’m only kidding. Dan Miragliotta needs to be more rational about his calling. He is being completely unfair to certain individuals. He needs to be reprimanded for his actions.

That referee stopped the best fight of the evening, he dont need to be any were around a octagon, how about useing a little common sense asshole

Brandon , next time you wanna improve your chances to win a fight ? don,t expect a referee to help you… Do it your self . And dont make the mistake of going to the floor with the World BJJ HW champ. You wanted to gamble on the floor with Fabricio you payed a high price.

that ref sucks!!!!!!