While the majority of the early fights from UFC On FX 7 didn’t light the world on fire, a couple certainly got a reaction from UFC president Dana White. And both instances involved referee Dan Miragliotta.
First, Miragliotta stopped the action in Yuri Alcantara vs. Pedro Nobre because of a perceived blow to the back of Nobre’s head. Replays showed that even the loosest definition of “back of the head” don’t include where Alcantara was landing strikes. Regardless, Nobre was unable to continue, though many were skeptical of how damaged he truly was including UFC commentator Kenny Florian. The fight was declared a no contest and Dana White was not impressed:
The opening fight of the main card brought another blunder from Miragliotta. Less than two minutes into the fight, Khabib Nurmagomedov dropped Thiago Tavares with a left hand. He followed up and got the finish with brutal ground and pound including 14 unanswered and powerful elbows. Despite a complete lack of defense from Tavares, Dan allowed him to take much more punishment than necessary and inspired this response from White on Twitter:
Dana has never held his tongue on questionable officiating in UFC fights. It’s yet to be seen what effect Dana’s threat will have on Dan Miragliotta in the long term.