Legendary MMA referee “Big” John McCarthy said the controversial standup in the UFC Vegas 123 main event was “unfair” to Renato Moicano.
In the UFC Vegas 123 headliner, Moicano had back control with a body triangle on Tom Nolan in the second round, yet referee Dan Miragliotta stood the fighters up, which led to Moicano immediately getting knocked down and hurt by punches. He was then finished by strikes in the third round when Nolan stopped him.
Immediately after the sketchy standup, the MMA community was up in arms over Miragliotta interfering in the fight. McCarthy, one of the greatest MMA referees of all time, believes that Miragliotta made a mistake by standing up the fighters despite Moicano having a dominant position on the ground.
John McCarthy Reacts to Sketchy Standup at UFC Vegas 123
Speaking on the “Weighing In” podcast, McCarthy shared his thoughts on the sketchy standup at UFC Vegas 123.
“When you look at why did Dan stand them up, I think Dan looked at it as, ‘We’ve had this position now a good portion of this fight and nothing’s happened – let’s get some action into it. He stands them up, and it’s completely unfair to one fighter – Moicano. Moicano earned that position. He worked for that position. It’s not an easy position to get to, and once he gets to it, it’s his to have,” McCarthy said (via MMAjunkie.com).
In McCarthy’s opinion, Moicano was working towards finishing the fight, so he does not agree with Miragliotta standing the fighters up.
“(The fighter’s) job is to always try to work toward finishing the fight. If you go back and look, the last minute he was on Nolan’s back before the stand-up, he had to have thrown 20, 25 strikes. Why is he doing that? “He’s working toward a finish: Which is the one that’s going to cause Nolan a problem, and now he makes a mistake and the choke gets slipped in?” McCarthy said.
Dan Miragliotta Overstepped His Boundaries
In McCarthy’s opinion, a referee’s job is not to make the fight exciting, and so if Miragliotta’s goal was to create action, he failed as he stole a dominant position away from Moicano and gave Nolan an unfair advantage, which helped lead to the finish.
“(A referee) cannot make a bad fight good, but you can definitely make a good fight bad. I’m not saying this ended up being a bad fight – it was exciting with what Nolan did (to get the finish). But he was given the opportunity to be in positions he never should have been in … to have the ability to get out of something that he needs to have the skill set to get out of. We don’t give advantages to one fighter over another. (Miragliotta) gave a great advantage to Tom Nolan, and took an advantage away from Moicano. I know Dan was not trying to be unfair. He was just looking getting action going toward the fight. But in reality, people can look at it and say you were unfair, and they’re right. It’s an unfair advantage you gave to one fighter over another,” McCarthy said.
John McCarthy: Controversial Standup ‘Unfair’ to Renato Moicano