Dana White's review of UFC 307 officiating: 'Disgusting'

Salt Lake City – Fans in the building, media members on site and online and even UFC CEO and President Dana White were all fuming over the officiating that stalled Saturday's UFC 307 card.

“Disgusting” was the only word description White used during the post-fight press conference in which he spoke to media outlets such as Cageside Press.

“I thought the judging tonight was horrible. “I felt like I was at a boxing match in Ireland tonight,” exclaimed White, clearly not a fan of some of the results posted. Tecia Pennington vs. Carla Esparza raised eyebrows early, particularly a scorecard that read 30-27 in Pennington's favor. With Jose Aldo vs. Mario Bautista and Julianna Pena vs. Raquel Pennington, many people also asked themselves which fights the judges were watching.

“I thought the assessment was terrible tonight, I’ll leave it at that,” White repeated a little later.

Then there was the referee's inaction on Cesar Almeida against Ihor Potieria. In three rounds, Potieria endured no fewer than four eye pokes and a low blow. No point was ever awarded and the referee barely bothered to warn Almeida to keep his weapons under control.

“I missed that, I was in my room and we were talking to people,” White admitted. “But (UFC vice president of regulatory affairs) Marc Ratner came in right after the incident and said, 'Yeah, that's not happening again tonight.'”

When the Aldo-Bautista fight, which Mario Bautista won with his wrestling despite not landing a takedown, came up again, White delved a little deeper. Especially because the referee didn't stop the action against the fence, which resulted in a lot of delay.

“I always think the referee should be more active in this regard. One hundred percent. Especially if someone keeps doing it to procrastinate,” White suggested. “If you judge a guy, whether it's control, whether this or that, if you don't try to fight, then how do you win the fight? And if you're dealing with attempted takedowns, what about suppressing the takedowns? Just crazy.”

White also agreed with the media's statement that there is both offensive and defensive grappling. However, he sees it as the referee's responsibility to keep the action going anyway.

“When you notice that the guy definitely doesn't want to stand and strike, but just wants to stand against the fence, yes, the referee, that's his job. You should see it. If they see it happening all the time and the guy isn’t trying to win the fight, then you keep trying to break them up.”