the most professional MMA fights. The results, it turns out, indicate that the amount of fights a referee has officiated is positively correlated with their perceived ability to properly enforce the rules and find the most opportune time for a stoppage. So, pop quiz? Guess which referee is not only the most experienced, but the most widely regarded as the best in the MMA business? That’s right, “Big” John McCarthy. I understand McCarthy burned bridges after his retirement from refereeing in 2007 with both Keith Kizer, Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and UFC President Dana White. McCarthy believed Kizer to be inept and White to be insufferable and heavy-handed. But if McCarthy can demonstrate an ability to still properly officiate a professional MMA fight, then the NSAC has a responsibility to reinstate him at once. Yes, McCarthy has to apply first and the UFC has very little say about which referees can be assigned where as that is the job of the commission. But the commission does have a responsibility to make sure the fights are run by professionals and to protect the health and safety of the fighters. There is, quite literally, no one better at that than “Big” John McCarthy. The time for personal squabbles is over. The fans and the fighters deserve more.

Kelly – I was ready to disagree with you and propose that we fix the current crop of referees in MMA and educate new ones when Yves Lavigne stepped on his dick again. His failure to impose his will and show Pete Sell mercy when Matt Brown was slaughtering him at UFC 96 was not the isolated incident we all thought it was. Lavigne once again failed in his duties to protect a downed fighter when Drew McFedries knocked Xavier Foupa-Pokam back to grade school on the same night that he stopped a fight between Kyle Bradley and Phillipe Nover prematurely. Add to Lavigne’s infractions Dan Mirgliotta’s reputation for stopping fights too quickly and Steve Mazagatti’s propensity to let them go too long and you’ve got a crop of officials who have apparently lost their way without the leadership of Big John. Herb Dean is probably the best of the current referees, but even he is inconsistent when it comes to fouls in the ring. In my opinion he robbed Nate Marquardt of a win against Thales Leites at UFC 85 by deducting a point from Marquardt that he didn’t deserve. I’m usually an advocate of fixing the crack in the door instead of buying a new door, but it seems the current UFC refs need the leadership and stability Big John provided, as do the fighters, fans, and promotions.

Issue #4 - Does there need to be criteria to specifically define what makes a 10-8 round in MMA?

Luke - Whether or not there needs to be criteria to specifically define what makes a 10-8 round is not clear, but what is incontestable is that efforts should be undertaken by the Association of Boxing Commissions and other stakeholders to determine if guidelines can be established that help define criteria for a 10-8 round that are reasonably applicable. We should be cautious about any rule change, lest we make adjustments to the unified rules that actually unfairly weight performances in fights incorrectly, but as it stands, there are no criteria in the Unified Rules whatsoever.  We are telling judges, often the same judges who are barely familiar with MMA at all, that they are free to use their best...