Dana White on Moicano stand-up: 'They could take your back and just ride it out for 3 rounds'
The UFC CEO said "I honestly don't know what to think" of Dan Miragliotta's call in the Tom Nolan fight, but that the rule is about damage and trying to win, not the position held.
Dana White does not think a stand-up comes down to having the dominant position, and has said he does not know what to think of referee Dan Miragliotta's call in the Tom Nolan v Renato Moicano main event at UFC Vegas 123.
White was speaking to reporters ahead of his PBR bull Playmate's competition on Friday when he was asked what he made of the stand-up. "Yeah, I knew that was coming ... I honestly don't know what to think about it. We actually haven't talked about it here at all. Yeah, we haven't even discussed it," he said.
Asked whether a fighter in back mount or full mount should ever be stood up, or whether that is too dominant a position, White said: "I don't think it's about having the dominant position. It's are you doing damage and are you trying to win the fight? Are you doing damage and are you trying to win the fight? Because if that's what you want to do, you could f***ing... some of these guys are so good they could take your back and just ride it out for 3 rounds."
He added: "I mean, the rules are if you're... if you're not doing damage or trying to advance your position or trying to win the fight, you get stood up." White did not say whether Miragliotta got the call right.
Moicano had Nolan's back with a body triangle in the second round when Miragliotta brought the fight back to the feet. Nolan stopped Moicano at 1:28 of round three on 31 October.
Big John McCarthy and Daniel Cormier have been far firmer on the position. McCarthy said that any time it gets to back control, "it has to be so egregious — and I'm talking four and a half minutes of being in a seatbelt position doing nothing". Cormier said on the post-fight show a referee "should never take anybody off of the back like that". Nolan himself told The Ariel Helwani Show he did not think Miragliotta "should have stood that up".
In the same session, White was asked about Miragliotta's reported $1,600 for the night and told people online to "worry about your f***ing self".
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