Veteran MMA referee reveals how personal history and being perspicacious impacts his decision-making as one of the best officials in the game.
Just because you are one of the best referees in all Mixed Martial Arts, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have the power to refuse to officiate certain fights or fighters, as Marc Goddard explains.
Goddard isn’t just a referee, he’s a former MMA fighter too
Whilst the vast majority of MMA fans know British referee Marc Goddard as one of the best and longest-serving officials in the entire sport, his understanding of the industry also comes down to his own experience as a fighter and coach.
That’s right, Goddard was indeed a fighter before he was a referee, ending his career with a 7-6-1 record that included four big wins coming by way of KO/TKO and another three coming via submission.
Yet this experience as a fighter, and later as a coach, has given Goddard a rather unique perspective on the world of MMA officiating – one that includes knowing when and where to refuse to referee certain bouts.
Marc Goddard explains refusal to officiate certain fights and fighters
Ahead of his enormous boxing clash with Jake Paul later this month, Mike Perry welcomed Goddard onto his Overdogs Podcast this week to talk everything combat sports.
A truly fascinating conversation, one which we’d highly recommend you find time to listen through yourself in full, Goddard was asked at one point whether there are any fighters who he can’t officiate in the UFC.
“There is – people don’t know this, there are certain fights” that he either isn’t allowed or doesn’t want to officiate for various reasons including having a close relationship with some of the promotion’s top talent.
“Here’s a classic case, Leon Edwards – you’ve never seen me referee Leon Edwards in the UFC and you never will, why? Because I was Leon Edwards’ first MMA coach.
“[That was] Way, way back when he was an amateur but it’s a common-sense element for me, even though the link is so [dated], who knew then when Leon first walked in… But you’ve never saw me referee him and you never will because we just keep it out of the way.”
The veteran referee explained that he doesn’t want the ‘hassle’ of officiating someone he’s been so close with outside of the octagon, sharing how “I don’t want to be in a predicament where I’m making a call that could go against him so it’s both ways.
“Do you remember when Israel Adesanya fought Alex Pereira for the second time in Miami? I specifically requested not to do that fight [too].”
Goddard revealed that he had declined to officiate the Adesanya-Pereira rematch “because I was thinking about Izzy and thinking about me and him.
“Me and him are [fine], I’ve refereed him since, I’ve refereed his fight with Sean Strickland, but I actually removed myself because what I didn’t want to do was walk in the dressing room, I was thinking of the fighter then, this is his night, it’s all about him.”
“I didn’t want to walk into that dressing room and him to have any form of negative connotations or something like that,” he continued.
Yet the MMA officiating industry is far different now from what it was 10 or 15 years ago, with hundreds of world-class referees working in alignment with various athletic commissions around the globe, most of whom could potentially step in ahead of Goddard under such circumstances.
“So, I just thought that the right thing to do and the fairest thing to do by him is just stay out of the fight and give it to another ref.
“There’s been a couple of incidences where there’s [been] certain fighters that I would rather not [officiate] for personal reasons,” he explained, adding how such a perspective comes from experience at the highest level of combat sports refereeing.
“We never want to be the story; I never want to be the story. My utopia in a fight is to say nothing but we don’t decide that the fighters do – it’s their sport… That comes with experience, it’s not about me.”
Both Leon Edwards and Adesanya are preparing for their own title fights; ‘Rocky’ faces Belal Muhammad at UFC 304, with ‘Stylebender’ set to compete for the middleweight title versus Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305.