Lesnar Asks to Have Mazzagatti Removed For Fight

Representatives for Brock Lesnar on Wednesday requested that the Nevada State Athletic Commission remove Steve Mazzagatti from consideration as referee for the upcoming five-round title fight between their client and UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture.

The anticipated bout, which pairs the hulking former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar with the UFC hall of famer, will headline UFC 91 on Nov. 15 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Citing Mazzagatti’s officiating in Lesnar’s UFC debut against Frank Mir in February, attorneys David Olsen and Brian Stegeman made their aversion to the referee’s presence known at a regularly scheduled NSAC meeting. The attorneys claimed Mazzagatti was “involved in what we believe was a controversial ruling in connection with the Mir-Lesnar fight.” They asked that Mazzagatti be removed from consideration for the UFC 91 main event to avoid “distraction” and “any further controversy.”

During the Lesnar-Mir match at UFC 81 -- a match Mir won by first-round submission -- Mazzagatti deducted a point from Lesnar for an illegal blow to the back of Mir’s head. Up to that point, Lesnar had dominated the former UFC champion and appeared to be on the verge of forcing a stoppage.

NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer commended Mazzagatti for his work at UFC 81 and did not remove him from consideration.

“I think Mazzagatti did a great job that night,” Kizer said.

Along with Mazzagatti, Herb Dean, Josh Rosenthal and Mario Yamasaki were under consideration to officiate the Couture-Lesnar match. Yamasaki was ultimately awarded the bout, which marks the 45-year-old Couture’s return to the cage for the first time since he stopped Brazilian Gabriel Gonzaga on strikes at UFC 74 in August 2007.

Correction: Sherdog.com initially reported that Kizer had granted the attorneys’ wishes to remove Mazzagatti from consideration, though Kizer later clarified the referee was still considered for the bout.

All this does is make Lesnar look like a ***** IMO.

I don't see that at all Ty.




I wasn't a fan of the point deduction myself.


I notice a lot, that when a fighter is on top of another fighter throwing punches, the fighter on the bottom moves his head a ton and then there are quite a few punches to the back of the head landed. It's almost unavoidable in some instances.

The guy on top can't do anything about it most of the time. What's he supposed to do, stop throwing punches because the guy under him keeps moving his head from side to side??? Hell, I've thought if I was a fighter, and I was in a position like Mir or some others would be under Brock, the SMART thing to do would be, when he's pounding on you, to try and move your head to make him hit you in the back of the head to get the ref to pull his ass off you.

I don't think Maz has anything against Lesnar, or the fix is in, but for Brock to be comfortable totally, and to avoid any possible controversy, why not?

I don't see this as a big deal.

Fighters have NEVER had any say in who the ref is. It shouldn't start now. He should focus on his opponent and not the ref.

Ty Hope said:

Fighters have NEVER had any say in who the ref is. It shouldn't start now. He should focus on his opponent and not the ref.

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HE could not even been aware his camp was even asking for Maz not being in consideration in the first place.

If you were in a fight and had questions about the ref's credibility, don't you think that would be on your mind the entire time and wouldn't want that to be the case.

I'm sure there's been cases of fighters not wanting certain refs in the past.

Sam Banks said:

[quote="Ty Hope":1gborvxa]Fighters have NEVER had any say in who the ref is. It shouldn't start now. He should focus on his opponent and not the ref.

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HE could not even been aware his camp was even asking for Maz not being in consideration in the first place.

If you were in a fight and had questions about the ref's credibility, don't you think that would be on your mind the entire time and wouldn't want that to be the case.

I'm sure there's been cases of fighters not wanting certain refs in the past.[/quote:1gborvxa]

I will agree that it may be his agents, and not him. That we don't know.

As far as a ref being on a fighter's mind, I disagree here. If something like that is going to bother him that much, he might as well quit the sport right now. I hear what you're saying, but I have seen MUCH worse officiating over the years. Things like this make fighters look immature to me. Just my opinion.

You take who the athletic committee gives you and you fight. I hate behind the scenes ********.

Mazzagatti has made some odd calls, you guys remember when Tyson Griffin vs Frankie Edgar match? When Tyson took a low blow and Mazzagatti told him to fight through it. I was like "WTF?"

I made some comments on this in the latter part of the UFC 90 thread when we were talking about Brock vs Randy on there if anyone wants to check them out.