After he pulled a judge from his post in Macau on Saturday in a self-described “meltdown”, the UFC has been forced to apologise for the behaviour of their President Dana White in what they describe as a “breach of protocol”.
After judge Howard Hughes scored the first two fights of UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs Le, Dana White personally withdrew Hughes from his scheduled assignments for the rest of the night – despite later saying he agreed with Hughes’ verdict on the Milana Dudieva vs Elizabeth Phillips fight.
The UFC statement issued today said:”After the second fight of the night, UFC President Dana White requested that Howard Hughes, one of the event’s five assigned judges, be removed from working any further bouts. Pursuant to UFC’s protocol, neither White nor any other UFC executive possesses such authority. Nevertheless, protocol was breached and Hughes did not work further bouts on Saturday night.”
The statement goes on to apologise to Howard Hughes on behalf of the organisation and White personally, and suggests that Hughes will be judging UFC fights in the future. The statement does not make clear whether or not White will face any repercussions.
This issue has brought to the fore once again a number of concerns around the UFC regulating itself in countries without formal sanctioning bodies. Though the statement is clear that UFC executives do not have the power to remove judges or other officials from a card even where the UFC is the sanctioning body, Dana White clearly thought that he did. It also remains unclear who exactly was responsible for officials in Macau, as UFC Head of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner was in Tulsa for that evening’s UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs Dos Anjos card. Ratner himself admitted in 2012 that the UFC regulating itself was “an inherent conflict” in an interview with SI.com.
