A Voice of Frustration on UFC 92: Poor Refereeing and Lackluster Performances

"I am Spartacus!"—Kirk Douglas

UFC 92 was a night of light heavyweight and heavyweight titles being changed, a night of quick fights and poor refereeing, and a night of disappointment for one excited fan.

I have to say that I am happy I did not pay for this UFC card. On paper, it looked to be incredible, to quote the Ultimate 2008.

However, I believe this card was a lackluster and disappointing one.

I cannot blame the fighters—well, not all of them at least (Forrest.)

But some of the refereeing was bad—namely the Mir-Noguiera fight.

Maybe it is old daddy Pride shaping my opinion and making me biased, or maybe it is because I have watched literally hundreds of fights and know Noguiera's reputation. Noguiera was not out, he never has been in his career, and has yet to taste true defeat by TKO.

Noguiera's worst enemy in that fight was Herb Dean, the referee who pulled Mir off of Nog before Nog could even tie up his guard. Is it a UFC conspiracy?

No, probably not. But it was simply pathetic refereeing at its best by a referee who happened to not be familiar with Noguiera's Wolverine healing factor.

The entire card was refereed like a boxing card and that to me was a problem. I felt as if fights that immediately went to the ground by a knock down were instantly ended.

Is the UFC being too cautious with its fighters and its refereeing? Maybe, but these men are professional fighters. Let them be beaten on—they train for this sort of thing and should be allowed the opportunity to at least close their guard.

Now, that being said, I was sad to see Wanderlei Silva be ended the way he was. I had hoped for fireworks, dynamite, and a Armageddon size meteor shower. Instead we were treated to a folded corpse on the mat by a quick counter punch by Quinton Jackson.

I am not disappointed with the fact that Jackson won, although I had rooted for Silva. I was disappointed that this was the theme of the entire night, a show of first round and second round knock outs and TKO stoppages.

I won't talk much about Cheick Kongo, because I am not much of a fan and not exactly impressed with the matchmaking. I know very little about the guy Kongo fought, but the research I did on him before the show led me to believe this guy would not have much of a chance either.

Kongo finished the guy fast—and displayed how much of a dirtball he truly is. Mustapha al Turk, who very clearly delivered an accidental knee to the giant Kongo's groin, was then rewarded by a malicious knee to his own.

Although Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg tried to say it was an accident, it looked like no accident from where I was sitting. Kongo walking away not even acting apologetic.

This was not the first time Kongo kneed someone to the groin either.  Just look at the way he fought Cro Cop—it was there he delivered a series of conveniently misplaced knees to his testicles as well.

Finally, Forrest Griffin versus Rashad Evans.  This fight was a real nail bitter. I was rooting for Griffin, but I was really nervous of Evan's explosive power.

Griffin was winning the stand up, countering with kicks, and staying outside of Evans range. Griffin even looked like he may have stunned Evans for a few seconds, but he looked sloppy and way too relaxed.

I don't know what it was, but watching that fight I could tell Griffin was going to lose.  He had a look of uncaring—a look that was not a champion's. This was cemented of course when Griffin was taken down and failed to wrap up Rashad.

Failing to even properly play the ground game led to Griffin's TKO and the belt switching hands. I don't know what was in Griffin's head, but he seemed more alive when the fight was over than when it had even begun.

So, to further reiterate and possibly explain, I did not like this show.  It was too short and not refereed very well. All of the main event fights ended before the third—with the exception of Griffin-Rashad, which forced me, the viewer, to watch undercard fights.

I love watching undercard fights and was thankful to see Antonio Hardonk fight, but when all but two of your undercard fights are shown—despite not being intended to be broadcast originally—there is something wrong with the main event.

Fights ended too quickly, and the main event fights ended up being not being very exciting. I know some people will disagree and that is fine—but this is my opinion and I am at least entitled to that.

All and all, the matchmaking was good. The fights were not.