Longtime boxing referee Kenny Bayless is among those in the running to officiate the superfight between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather, Jr., despite the fact that he doesn’t approve of the match.
UFC president Dana White took to his Twitter last week with a video clip of Bayless discussing the bout (presumably before it was made official):
“I wouldn’t want to see it, because it’s two different sports. UFC and boxing are two different sports, so what would be the point?”
Seriously? This is Kenny Bayless who works for the NSAC a potential ref for the fight. Sounds like he works for the crybaby Oscar De La Arum pic.twitter.com/7yLvORqMOQ
— Dana White (@danawhite) June 23, 2017
McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, also disapproves of Bayless possibly getting the assignment and says he’ll protest if it happens:
“Yes, I’ll be objecting to that,” Kavanagh wrote on an Irish message board (H/T MMA Mania). If Kavanagh were to have the final say, his choice would be someone from the MMA community be the third man in the ring. He recently told ESPN the following:
“I think [MMA ref] Marc Goddard should be the referee. We’re already agreeing to boxing rules, boxing fight, boxing ring — everything is done boxing. So, how about an MMA referee that will understand the inside fighting that will go into this fight?”
While it’s doubtful that Goddard would get the nod to ref the fight, it’s hard to disagree with White and Kavanagh’s concerns about Bayless. Last we checked, the sport was called MMA, not UFC, and with a fight of this magnitude, even the tiniest details will be subject to the heaviest scrutiny.
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