Dana White says UFC will recognize Erick Silva's victory, supports use of instant replay
Posted on January 15, 2012, 02:03 PM by Joey Santosus
"Mario Yamasaki has made a lot of good decisions in his career, too; the guy made a decision, it was the wrong decision, but hey - let's not put the lynch mob on Mario.
We're going to treat him like he won the fight, meaning we’ll move him 'up.' I don’t know what we can do about it. I was talking to Marc Ratner about it tonight; I’d like to get together and work out a way we can use an instant replay." - For more from Dana White, visit ESPN.com
Looks like we can put away our torches and pitchforks - at least for now, anyway.
That's according to UFC President Dana White, who says that, although Mario Yamasaki may have made the wrong call when disqualifying Erick Silva, we should probably hold off on forming a lynch mob.
Silva, a 27-year-old prospect out of Team Nogueira, needed only 40-seconds to dispatch of Luis Ramos back in August, and just as it appeared that he had bested that time at UFC 142, stopping Carlo Prater in 29-seconds, it was announced that "Indio" had been DQ'ed due to strikes deemed illegal by Yamasaki. But, while the record books may indicate a loss for Silva, White says the promotion will recognize the stoppage as a victory for the Brazilian, and feels that using instant replay when making such a decision would be ideal for officials moving forward. So, what's the word LowKick'ers? Do you agree with Yamasaki's call? Is instant replay necessary? Perhaps they could distribute challenge flags to the cornermen while they're at it?
Further Reading: UFC 142: Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes Video Highlights
Photo: Scott Hirano
Comments
cant think of another promoter that goes to bat for his guys like this, and will still pay them, their win bonus.
Dana for President!!! Its possible this day and age...
He hit him in the back of the head at least four times
Yeah erik is clearly the better fighter but you cant do that its an illegal move and he had have thrown a kick or a knee to a downed opponent no one would be questioning this
a strike to the back of the head is an illegal move for a reason
The replay only showed one, maybe two punches that were to the back of the head. Erik was trying to pick his shots very carefully, but the fact of the matter is that his opponent was already in serious trouble and was just trying to turn his face away from the punches. The turning of his head was the reason why anything landed there, not deliberate action on Erik's part.
In other words, his opponent was exposing the back of his head to harm in an attempt to avoid harm, pretty much textbook definition of "not intelligently defending yourself." This is a legit TKO. Even if Mario deemed that shots to the back of the head were the reason for the stoppage, I don't think he's stupid enough to think they were intentional. By the rules set forth for UFC, any match that ends in the first two rounds due to an "unintentional illegal blow" is to be ruled a No Contest. Calling this performance a loss by disqualification by saying those strikes were intentional is a travesty.
your right it shudnt be a disqualification But my point is If the same thing happened he get rocked then he put one knee down as he was throwing a kick or a knee and it hit him in the face people wudnt be making such a big deal outt of it theyd say oh thats not fair he kneed him while hes down
If your ever been hit in the back of the head yud understand thats an illegal move and you shudnt be rewarded in mma for that
wheter mario handled it properly is my place to say clearly erik why just trying to finish the fight and its a shame he hit him in the back of the head if mario was perfect he wud stop the fight and take one point for an illegal blow then continue but hes not superman people make mistakes
Or at least Governor...
should be in new york, can't wait for a ufc event here
If they can stop a fight and have a doctor look at a cut, why not stop the fight to let the ref look at tape?
Yeah I want to see them do that when a ref stops a fight prematurely to a submission attempt as well.
I think they should have instant replay. Especially when Omigawa tapped when he was in the armbar. And during TUF.
kinda guessed he would still move up the ranks, its like when bones got dq'd against hamill, everyone knows he won, so it doesn't make sense to waste time giving him lesser opponents for another year..
and the red corner throws the challenge flag!!!
of course they should use instant replay, its 2012 for Gods sake...
fighters with a perfect record gets their statistics messed up this way.
difficult to get a good angle, unless there is another video out there with a better angle that i'm unaware about, but those punches did look like they landed on the back of the head, and even the base of the neck, to me
The replay I saw, there was one punch that looked like it did land to the back of the head and another that was borderline.
But they were after Prater had been knocked down and was already in big trouble, and came in a flurry of 5 or 6 hammer fists.
When a fighter is rolling around on the floor trying to defend himself, punches don't always land where they are aimed.
This is why the ref always warns a fighter at least once before taking a point away. The DQ, given the situation, was ridiiculous.
This just proves that video replays won't solve anything.
The two guys above me both saw the replay and one says there was punches to back of the head while the other says no. Mario still says he made the right call so how would video replays change it?
Just makes it harder to make a mistake which is a good thing. The majority saw that it was a non-sensical ruling as even though a hammerfist or two may have been misplaced it was in a situation where an opponent is changing position rapidly and frantically and many fights have been uninterupted at all with those kinds of strikes placing. But to cancel victory is a bad call. Video playback has resulted in the fighters future remaining on course thankfully.
Go back and listen to Mario's comments when Joe Rogan was grilling him in the ring. He asked him if he was satisfied with the call, and Yamasaki danced all around the answer saying "You have to understand, I have to make this kind of decision in the moment, as it happens." He never said anything that could be translated to the affirmative. For the rest of the post fight interview, he paced and fumed in the background. He was very clearly not pleased with the situation. Mario's a professional. If he actually thought he made the right call after seeing the instant replay, he would have just told Joe "That's why I'm a ref and you're not."
In any case, this will probably result in replays being made available to the refs. And yes, this would make reffing better. Some people might disagree on whether punches landed to the back of the head here, but in the end, the only opinion that really matters is the referee's. Adding a slo-mo instant replay to aid their judgement calls only gives them the same tools available to the rest of the audience.
I saw the fight too...
It was clear that Prator was facing down. MMA doesnt have very clear rules on what is the "back of the head". Should it be from the back of the ear to the other ear. If not, then because the head is round. we only have a small 2inch area which is the back of the head.
Its all BS and from looking at the fight when the fighter are on the ground, it appeared this guy was hit on the back of the head but not all strikes were . Some say only 1 or maybe 2 strikes. But wait a minute, how many strikes does it take to be disqualified? Mario was right....STHU people.....
Well other fighters had points taken or they weren't even looked at if the fight was in a place of flailing around. It would be different if the guy was sitting still and covering up and he was still hit in the back of the head. What if a fighter in their gaurd pulling down on his opponents head accidently did it with impact to the back of the head because he was trying to grab the head quickly? So it's not how many strikes it's how significant the strikes and how irresponsable the fighter throwing them. Eric Silva was punching like 5 times a second and 1 or 2 just grazed the fighter in the wrong area with clearly no impact on the fighters loss. He was hit much harder in the right areas. I saw 1 punch that hit back of the head and one that looked as though it may have grazed his skin.
how come if you hit someone in the junk they get 5 minutes to recover, but a blow behind the head mario called a DQ. if that was his call he should have gave him 5 minutes to recover so we could have seen him get his ass kicked again.
its because they dont want what boxing has in their hands. If a fighter gets hit in the back of the head and receives a concussion and is given 5 minutes to clear the cobwebs, he can receive additional significant brain damage and injury. Thats why you get boxers (cough* james toney) who cant rele speak well. Because they get concussed given a 10 count get up and do it again. Its a safety thing
I doubt your balls can continuously take punishment either without affect.