Former renowned MMA referee John McCarthy was among those less than impressed with the work of one official at UFC 307 this past weekend.
Plenty of talking points emerged from Saturday’s pay-per-view event in Utah. Unfortunately, not all of them focused on the actual fighting held inside Salt Lake City’s Delta Center.
Instead, questionable judging and outright terrible refereeing caused a heap of discourse online. The latter of those conversations was down to the work of Dave Seljestad.
In his final assignment of the night, Seljestad was the third man inside the cage for Cesar Almeida and Ihor Potieria’s middleweight preliminary contest. It proved to be a painful bout for the Ukrainian, who was on the receiving end of a low blow and at least four eye pokes. Despite his complaints, the fouls were largely ignored by the referee.
And — as if “The Duelist” didn’t have reason enough to feel hard done by — he was granted just seconds in dominant clinch positions before Seljestad decided to separate the fighters, much to the bemusement of the commentary team and MMA masses.
It doesn’t take one of the most experienced refs the sport has seen to outline what Seljestad did wrong. But for those still needing an explanation…
McCarthy On UFC 307 Ref: Congratulations, You ‘Sh*t The Bed!’
During the latest episode of his Weighing In podcast alongside Josh Thomson, McCarthy reacted to the officiating controversy from UFC 307.
The veteran referee did not mince his words when it came to Seljestad’s performance, accusing him of trying to make the fight about himself and urging him to give up his career as third man inside the cage.
“I’ll tell you what, the referee absolutely destroyed this fight. It was bad,” McCarthy said. “Potieria got eye poked probably five to six times in this thing. I know the referee. He’s been around forever. He’s been reffing in Utah for over 20 years. … Look at when he’s checking the fighters and he starts doing this big swooping motion over the tape of the glove, and he makes it dramatic. You go, ‘Dude, I don’t know if you realize, this isn’t about you.’
“He f*cking broke them off of clinches. Guy gets into a clinch on the fence, 10 seconds and he separates them. You look and you go, ‘It’s all about you isn’t it? … Congratulations, Dave Seljestad. You made a fight bad,” McCarthy continued. “You absolutely just sh*t the bed. It was horrible. You did something completely outside of what the rules for the sport are. … What are you in there for? … Stop, quit, retire! The sport has passed you by and you’re not doing your job, so you’re no good for anybody.”
Seljestad’s lack of action regarding Almeida’s fouls and egregiously quick clinch separations caused a stir on social media, with many going as far as to brand it the worst performance from a referee in UFC history.
Suffice to say, he may struggle to get on the officiating lineup when the promotion returns to Utah…
