Dan Miragliotta under fire after stand-up call in Tom Nolan's UFC win

MMA writer Jed Meshew called the UFC Vegas 123 stand-up the worst officiating he has seen in more than 20 years of watching the sport, while Alexander K. Lee named Herb Dean as the referee who worries him most.

Dan Miragliotta is at the centre of a debate over whether he is the worst active referee in MMA, after a stand-up call in the UFC Vegas 123 main event that might have directly led to Tom Nolan beating Renato Moicano.

Meshew said the call was the worst piece of officiating he had seen in more than 20 years of watching MMA, and that it would have been egregious even on the regional scene, let alone in the sport's biggest organisation. He said Miragliotta had been a bad referee for many years, pointing to clips of earlier incidents that resurfaced after the Moicano fight.

Meshew said Nolan might have won anyway, but that the call meant nobody would ever know. He said it had taken the title of “Worst Referee in MMA” from Dean, adding that he would have agreed with Lee's case against Dean only a week earlier.

Lee argued that Dean's main failing is inconsistency. He said Dean refuses to take points and fakes fighters out by appearing about to stop a fight before backing off, which has earned the referee the nickname “Hokey Pokey Herb”. Lee also said fighter after fighter has spoken out against Dean, and that those drawing him cannot know whether to trust him with their careers and health.

He cited a tournament semi-final on The Ultimate Fighter between Xavier Franklin and Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu. In the final minute, Dean stepped in while Franklin was delivering a finishing flurry and was heard saying: “It’s over. The fight’s done.” Akylbek Uulu then complained of an eye poke, and Dean went to video review, later claiming he had called a timeout rather than a stoppage. Franklin lost on the scorecards.

Both writers acknowledged the demands of the job. Lee described officiating as mostly thankless, with only the top names at the biggest shows earning substantial pay. Meshew said referees travel extensively and make at most a couple of thousand per event, but that this does not excuse poor refereeing when a failure can harm someone else.

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