Dan Miragliotta gives his view on the Daley-Koscheck post fight sucker punch
Posted on May 11, 2010, 04:41 PM by Daniel CassidyWhile everybody saw what happened post fight between Paul Daley and Josh Koscheck, nobody had a better view than the ref for the bout, Dan Miragliotta. Speaking to mmafanhouse.com, Miragliotta said this about the event generated more heat than the fight itself:
“I was shocked. I thought [Daley] was going to hug him. I thought it was over with. You’ve seen it before where guys hated each other, spoken poorly about each other, but when the fight is over, they still get up and give each other a hug and it’s over with. Because of the trash talk, I was trying to be on my toes during the touching of the gloves and after the final bell. I tried to stay close to him. When Daley reached for him, I thought he was going to hug him. I was wrong. He caught me off-guard.”
“When Daley first got up, I got between them because of the trash talk, just to play it safe. But then it felt like there was no tension. Daley was grabbing for his arm. It seemed like everything was done with and he was going to say, ‘Hey Josh, good fight.’ I was wrong. I was shocked.”
“I said, ‘What are you doing? You’re a pro fighter. What are you thinking?’ He didn’t answer me, so I said it again. I was restraining him. He said, ‘I didn’t hear the bell.’ That was it. That’s all he said. Everybody else heard the bell.”
When asked if he could see any anger in the Brit’s eyes in the final moments of the fight, Miragliotta said:
“I saw frustration. He couldn’t stop Josh from taking him down and controlling him on the ground. From what I heard of the pre-fight interviews, they both said they were going to make this a standup battle, and it wasn’t that way. Josh played his card rights and did what he had to do to win the fight. Daley was frustrated that it didn’t go his way. He’s a great fighter. Dana said many times the kid had such good potential. And honestly he’s always been respectful to me. I’ve met him a couple times and he’s always been nice and respectful. I was very shocked.”
As expected, Daley was released from UFC with immediate effect and has repeatedly apologized for the situation.
Comments
dan is the man..
Yea there is no way Dan could have prevented that or seen that coming. It seemed exactly like he said, that he would walk over and give the post-fight props that are generally exchanged after the final bell.
mma is a combination of many aspects of fighting i dont wanna let you know all of its but i just cant seem that you will understand the things i will say knowing that you dont even know about the sport. go watch boxing because you might strained your lousy mind understanding the sport.
It did initially look like Daley was walking over to congratulate Kos. I think it's hilarious that he said he didn't hear the bell, that's a good one. Nice try. No fault of the ref, that's for sure. Daley is a one dimensional fighter, and obviously a cry baby who did not get his way and retaliated like a cry baby would, by lashing out.