The Third Man in The Cage

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UFC 134 Rio was a very exciting card from start to finish. The main card featured multiple knockouts, and the undercard provided back and forth action in many of its bouts. After watching one fight in particular, however, I took away something rather interesting. The third person in the cage has the responsibility for managing organized chaos, and that is a task like none other.

When I think of great referees, I think of Mills Lane. As a referee of numerous championship bouts, television judge, and originator of the phrase “Let’s get it on,” Lane commanded respect, in the ring and out of it. Only one person ever tested his mettle, Mike Tyson, and we all know how that turned out.

UFC 134 brought us a refereeing situation that while not as graphic as the Tyson debacle, was still very puzzling to watch. Rousimar Palhares almost made the world believe that he stopped Dan Miller in the first round of their contest, jumping on top of the cage and celebrating like he had just earned a title shot, while Miller and referee Herb Dean exchanged puzzled looks. Palhares was quickly called down and admonished, and the fight continued. Though Miller almost capitalized on the whole situation by knocking down Palhares, nearly finishing him, the positive outcome was not to be, as he dropped a unanimous decision.

Herb Dean reacted to and handled this situation correctly. Other, less respected or experienced refs might have been swayed by the Palhares celebration and assumed that Miller called it quits. Instead, Dean quickly brought the fight under control and got the action restarted. Since then, accusations have been thrown back and forth, as Palhares’s camp says that Miller verbally tapped and Dean should be to blame for the fiasco. Miller’s camp responded by denying the claim and pointing out Palhares’s track record of bizarre behavior in fights as of late; I’m not going to side with the Brazilian this time around.

MMA is in need of a larger group of referees who fully understand the sport. This is just as important of a concern as the lack of educated judges within the sport. On recent cards we’ve seen refs hastily stand fighters up, basically saving fighters from bad positions, and we all remember the Mac Danzig-Matt Wiman submission situation, due to the mistaken call by Yves Lavigne. Dean and “Big” John McCarthy are the closest thing to “Mills Lane” figures within MMA, and the relative paucity of respectable referees needs to be addressed.

John McCarthy runs educational courses that are meant to train inexperienced referees. I believe that the UFC should press athletic commissions to require its licensed referees to attend such a course,

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My personal favorite is Herb.

herb or big john

It is so easy for a dumbass writer to shit on a reff from the protection of his word processor. Sure I hate a bad call as much as the next guy but comon. The refs in the ufc are some of the best in the business and they are all trying to balance fighter safety, fan entertainment and fair play all while enforcing the rules of the game.

Every ref has the potential to be "The best Ref Ever" or "The worst ref we have ever seen" It all depends on that one call that can ruin your reputation or put you in the best light ever.

I like Dana but he really needs to shut his mouth when it comes to refs or even Judges. It does no good to call these folks out when they make a "bad call". Change the system, change the training, change the criteria but don't shit on the guy who is trying to do the job in the current situation.

Having said all that .... Big John, Yves, Herb and Dan

Big jon

I guess Dana's propaganda has worked. Before his fall out with Big John this poll would have been 100% for BJM as the best Ref in the game.

I think the best refs are as follows: Herb, BJM, Steve Maz and Mario (Luigi's Borther)

and maybe Yves Lavigne (Avril's dad)

Big John is the only guy in the biz who commands any substantial amount of respect for fighters. Herb to me is one of the most inconsitent refs I've ever seen; He'll let a guy get pounded to within an inch of life one week, and the next week he's stopping a fight as soon as a fighter turltes-up.
To me, that makes Big John the best and Herb Dean the worst. I think Yves is right there as one of the best, though. he seems to learn from his mistakes better than most.

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I disagree with regards to Herb, as I find him to be fairly consistent; especially when you consider guys like Josh Rosenthal who is clearly incompetent.

I think Big John commands respect regardless of who the fighters are because he is an icon in MMA.

Consitent how? Because whether you say he's consistently protecting fighters, or he's consistently allowing them every chance to recover, I can promise you that I can find a lot of evidence to the contrary.