Veteran MMA referee Dan Miragliotta had one of the biggest officiating blunders in recent memory on Saturday night at UFC Vancouver, costing Kyle Nelson a first-round finish and nearly costing him a win.
With 10 seconds left on the clock after a back-and-forth opening round, Nelson dropped opponent Matt Frevola with a big overhand right. The Canadian immediately jumped on Frevola and battered away with ground-and-pound, seeking a finish — and then seemingly getting that finish when Miragliotta jumped in and pulled the two apart with roughly four seconds left in the round for their main-card lightweight bout.
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Miragliotta, however, didn’t wave off the action. Nor was there an end-of-round bell.
It didn’t matter, though. Miragliotta restarted the action moments later for Round 2 — leaving Nelson, the UFC’s commentary team, and even cageside officials bewildered at what just unfolded.
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner jumped on the broadcast immediately after the confusion and promptly threw all the blame at Miragliotta’s feet:
“I asked the referee, he said he heard the horn. But there was no horn. He stopped the fight prematurely, so it’s a mistake by the referee.”
Fortunately for Nelson, he went on to win the fight two rounds later by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). Like the rest of the world, though, he was also baffled at Miragliotta’s decision.
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“I thought I won the fight at the end of the first,” Nelson said post-fight. “I got up, I was walking over to shake my opponent’s hand and somebody’s yelling, ‘It’s not over! It’s not over!’ And I’m like, ‘I just blew all my gas right there at the end. It’s not over now? What’s going on?’ So the rest of the fight was a little bit of just recovering from that, pouring all my energy out in the first.”
Many of Nelson’s fellow UFC veterans immediately jumped to criticize the botched call.
The rebound win was a nice start to Nelson’s newly-committed run at 155 pounds after competing primarily at featherweight for his UFC run.
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Frevola now rides a three-fight skid.
Check out complete UFC Vancouver results and highlights here.
