Dan Miragliotta After UFC 101: "Amir Sadollah was out."
“When you get to see the fight in slow motion, you can see that [Amir Sadollah (1-1)] was out and then, after a couple of strikes, wakes back up and starts trying to stand back up,” UFC referee Dan Miragliotta told Fighters.com Sunday night in response to the outrage here and across the MMA media after Johny Hendricks (6-0) TKO’d the charasmatic The Ultimate Fighter 7 champ Sadollah in 29 seconds in Hendricks’s Octagon debut at UFC 101 in Philadelphia Saturday.
Miragliotta emphasized, “You know me and have spoken with me about other fights, my job is to protect the fighters and I try and do my best to do that.”
Sadollah began the fight lunging forward in a 1-2 combination, but ate a Hendricks straight left that backed Sadollah up stunned. Hendricks smelled blood in the Octagon and followed Sadollah landing a series of uppercuts.
Miragliotta said, “What made me stop the fight was the fact that, after the multiple uppercuts by Hendricks, I felt that Sadollah was out and went limp. He fell down to his hands and knees and just stayed there. From where I was, I could not see his eyes to see if he was out, but I felt that he was not defending himself and, after several more punches that went unanswered, I stopped the fight.”
The skyrocketing popularity of MMA combined with former WWE professional wrestler and Fighters.com’s second-ranked heavyweight Brock Lesnar’s (4-1) rapid ascension to the UFC title has brought hundreds of thousands of new fans to the sport, many of whom aren’t familiar with combat sports and the rules of MMA. Fighters.com ruled the stoppage appropriate immediately after the fight based on Sadollah’s lack of intelligent defense as Hendricks wailed on his head, which is the standard used by MMA referees to ensure the safety of fighters. It’s the responsibility of the fighter to intelligently defend themselves, not the responsibility of the referee to risk the fighter taking permanent damage as the ref tries to verify the fighter’s state of conciousness.
A proud professional, Miragliotta verified his call immediately after the stoppage: “When I stopped the fight and got between Sadollah and Hendricks, Sadollah still looked glassy eyed and asked me what happened. I feel that he was still a little out of it while standing there talking to me.” And, when Fighters.com spoke to Miragliotta, he had just finished watching the fight again to examine his work.
The frightening effects of head injuries are well-documented. The father of former wrestler Chris Benoit blamed the severe brain abnormalities caused by multiple concussions for Benoit’s murder of his wife and child and subsequent suicide. Last March, actress Natasha Richardson passed on after what she considered a mild head bump after a tumble while skiing.
Sadollah is a 28-year old promising martial artist who’ll return from his first loss to win many fights. There was no reason to risk the potential head injury that could’ve been caused by allowing Sadollah to absorb more punishment from Hendricks while Sadollah didn’t defend himself.
Miragliotta made the correct call at UFC 101.
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John Hendricks Destroys Amir Sadollah in 29 Seconds at UFC 101
Posted: August 8, 2009Comments: 17 -
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So you’re a fucking doctor now, Edwards? You know for fact that had Dan let the fight continue that Amir would get a head injury? My father’s a fucking neurosurgeon and he will tell you and Dan to their faces that two or three punches from Hendricks while Amir was waiting to get up would not give permanent brain damage. But, wait, those were ILLEGAL blows to the back of the head which can KILL you. Miragliotta should have deducted a point, given Amir 5 minutes to shake off the illegal strikes and continued the fight.
You seem like the kind of douchebag who’s spent your entire life telling people your daddy’s a neurosurgeon as an excuse for what a fuckup you’ve turned out to be. Perhaps you ought to listen to people who know something about the sport. If not me, then Dan.
I agree with MD. The ref should have given Amir a few minutes to recover from the illegal strikes. Its obvious, he screwed up and now he’s using the “head injury” excuse.
Dan poked heath herring in the eye! He ignored Al Turk’s double eye poke! Kimbo-Thompson was a fiasco. There are more. He should be FIRED.
While sadollah was rocked, he has shown that he has the heart to go on through a knockdown. What stopped the fight was the flurry of illegal blows. I agree, he should have stopped the fight on fouls, or at least a warning and reset, because that was lame. Its not the first time miragliotta has made poor calls, IMO anyways.
I think the ref rushed and stopped it three punches early.
It was nothing like the beating Sadollah got from CB Dollaway and yet Sadollah managed to pull out a win (twice).
Obviously Dan is trying to falsely justify his call by giving all these excuses like he was out but I didn’t see his face and hes gonna get some brain trauma and die BS. Dan needs to get fired and they need to bring some legit veteran refs back. No idea why Chad is defending Dan so adamantly and is a fucking retard for doing so.
How can this site be termed “News” in Google? You have no idea what you are talking about. Dan has on several occasions messed up calls. This is just one more notch in his belt. Stop sucking the teet of the UFC refs OP! He was incorrect and so are you.
WHY IS NOBODY MENTIONING THE FACT THAT THOSE WERE BLATANTLY ILLEGAL BLOWS TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD!!!!!!!!! Everyshot was to the back of Sadollah’s head, it’s a terrible call, not saying Amir would’ve won or anything, but it’s a terrible stoppage based on the fact that not 1 of those punches (on the ground) was legal….anybody getting punched int he back of the head won’t be able to get up, he’s basically getting held/pushed down by the swings…Bid Dan should be Big Douche…stupid orange a-hole
Just a correction on The Chad post. There are no UFC refs. The refs are assigned by the athletic commision of the state the fight takes place in. There are very few sanctioned mma refs, That is why you see the same ones over and over.
Chad, that’s absolutely incorrect. I’m not a fuck-up. In fact, I have a better, more stable job than you. You write a blog! I have a blog, too! But they are abstracts from all my theses from college… I’m actually educated.
It looks like you have no idea what you’re talking about, Chad. Calling me a douchebag is not going to help defend your cause.
Not only should Dan be fired, but you, Chad, should be fired as well. You have destroyed whatever potential credibility fighters.com could have ever had by MMA fans.
Dan Miragliotta doesnt know what he is saying he doesnt belong in the UFC Dana should fire him this isnt the first time hes screwed up a fight. Hendricks was throwing illegal punches to the back of the head and amir was down on all four because if he got up jonny could have punched him. Amir landed EVERY punch and he had a kick that BROKE jonnys hand. it is so obvious that dan should have been fired every person in the wachovia center was booing that idiot.
I think the fight could have continued a few seconds longer just to see if Amir had the chance to recover.
At the same time fighter safety is important and Dan Miragliotta was just trying to do his job.
Since there’s no standing 8 count in MMA there will always be situations like this where judgment will be questioned.
After witnessing the fight live, reading this blog post and follow up comments.. I have come to 2 conclusions,
1. Chad Edwards has taken too many hits to the head,
2. Dan Miragliotta HAS NO BUSINESS reffing in the ring.
Both men are equally as retarded.
All I can say is Matt Brown vs Pete Sell. WTF? Sell was a zombie and the ref did nothing!!!
I thought it was early, but didn’t notice back-of-the-head shots. It seems there are more bad refs than good ones.