Steve Mazzagatti fires back at Dana White: “I don’t work for him”
Long-time mixed martial arts referee, Steve Mazzagatti has this week hit back at the criticism levied at him by UFC President, Dana White over his past few performances inside the octagon, noting he doesn’t work for the UFC nor perhaps the most influential man in the sport today.
Speaking via Heavy.com, Mazzagatti said:
“We don’t make the rules. We enforce them. It’s not our job to make sure the fight goes the way the promoter wants it to go. It’s the fighter’s job. It’s their show. They’ve got to be the entertainer. I don’t make the fight what everyone expects it to be. If you want to make a 15-second standup rule, then come up with a 15-second standup rule and I will stand them up in 15 seconds. I can only go with what’s given to me. I don’t judge fighters by who they are and what they’re known for. I can’t even count how many fights I’ve done which all has gone fine, but sometimes things are going to go bad. It’s just like good fighters. Sometimes it goes bad and they get subbed or they get beat, and that’s the way it goes. Unfortunately, we’re in a high-profile position. We can’t see it all. You gotta understand, I don’t work for Dana and we [referees] don’t work for Dana. I feel I’m a public servant for the fans and the fighters. I want to make sure the fighters have a good, clean, fair fight that they trained for and expect.”
Mazzagatti has been in for major criticism over the past couple of years from the likes of UFC President, Dana White and former heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar who insisted the long-time official didn’t officiate any of his future fights inside the octagon. No doubt Dana will have something to say about his outburst so stay tuned to MMABay for more on this as we get it.
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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