The Nevada State Athletic Commission have appointed Steve Mazzagatti as the referee in charge of Saturday night’s UFC 156 main event between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar for the UFC featherweight championship.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know how UFC President Dana White feels about Mazzagatti as a referee and he made his point crystal clear again this past weekend.
“I could go off for 45 minutes on officiating over [in Nevada]. Steve Mazzagatti is the ref reffing the [Aldo vs. Edgar] superfight. What more can I do (while turning his hand into a gun and pulling the trigger against his head)? Mazzagatti is reffing the superfight. What more needs to be said than that?
I can’t do anything. As a promoter, I can’t do anything. The fighters can. The fighters can say, ‘Oh my God.’ They can say, ‘I don’t want him,’ and they gotta go in and give good cause on why they don’t want him.” – transcribed by 5thround.com
Whether or not Aldo or Edgar will do anything about the referee in charge is yet to be seen, however it is highly unlikely. The two are so focused on their training that the referee situation is the last thing to worry about.
“I can tell you this, if I was a fighter, the last thing I would want to see when I got in the cage is Mazzagatti,” White said in closing. “That’s the last thing I would want to see.”
UFC 156: Aldo vs. Edgar goes down from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 2.
