Bellator 119 took place last Friday, May 9 2014 at the Casino Rama in Rama Ontario Canada. An otherwise very entertaining card was marred by the actions of what seemed to be a particularly befuddled referee. While the rest of the card was largely well officiated, sometimes one badly officiated fight is enough to put a bad taste in ones mouth.

The fight in question was the first bout on the evening’s main card, a heavyweight matchup between an undefeated Raphael Butler and longtime MMA standout Nick “The Slim Shady of MMA” Rossborough.

The fight started out in the first round being very entertaining, with both fighters mixing it up on both the ground and the feet for the first half of the opening round. At the 2:23 mark of the first round, Nick Rossborough nailed Raphael Butler with a left hook that sent Butler toppling to the floor. Rossborough then followed him to the ground, and almost immediately took Butler’s back and began to work for a Rear Naked Choke. Rossborough quickly got both hooks in and put Butler belly up, still jockeying for good hand/arm position.

At the :54 second mark in the first round, Butler tilted his head forward and then slammed it back into the jaw of Rossborough, and you could see immediately that he was at least dazed from it. I was pretty astounded, as I haven’t seen an intentional head butt in quite some time. The referee stopped the fight immediately, separated the fighters, and called in the ringside physician to take a look at Rossborough, then took a point from Butler for the intentional head butt.

What followed was where I, as well as many others, have a problem.

Upon ensuring that both fighters were ok to continue, the referee then made it clear that he was going to restart the fight in a standing position. This was immediately met with questioning from Rossborough, as well as the loud protests of his corner man, longtime UFC veteran Demarques Johnson.

Despite deducting a point from Butler; this effectively rewarded him for committing the foul, as the fact that Rossborough had previously taken his back, had hooks in, and was working for a Rear Naked Choke most certainly meant that he was in a precarious position. By standing the fighters back up, that still negated the previously good position that Rossborough had achieved before what was an obvious foul occurred.

Bellator commentator Jimmy Smith repeatedly voiced his disagreement with this decision.

The next two rounds that followed were very back and forth rounds, but the fight ended up being declared a Majority Draw.

I feel that this was a bit unfair in the end, as Rossborough certainly could have said he wasn’t able to continue the fight after he was fouled, some guys have certainly said they were unable to continue for less (a la Josh Diekmann vs. Manny Lara), yet he did continue in a fight where he was obviously never able to fully recover from a flagrant foul.

I was able to get a statement from Nick Rossborough (who I will be having a more in depth interview with later this week) on his thoughts on the ref’s decision to stand them back up after the foul that left him quite dazed as a result.

“I don’t remember the fight after that. I went into auto pilot mode. After watching the fight myself, the ref looked like he didn’t know much about the basics when it came to reffing. There’s a huge issue with reffing lately and them not knowing much,” Rossborough said.

He went on to question the licensing and education processes of athletic commissions at large, going on to say that referee’s need to be better prepared for officiating professional MMA bouts and should ideally have some level of expertise in the various disciplines that comprise Mixed Martial Arts. His sentiments certainly have merit, as many often echo them, but under these circumstances they are especially warranted.

I have seen some remarks online stating that it wasn’t a big deal that they were stood back up due to the fact that there was less than a minute left in the round, but I wholeheartedly disagree, since Rossborough could have very well finished the fight with a Rear Naked Choke if he had been placed back in the position he was in before the foul.

Seeking the opinion of a professional referee whose experience was definitely beyond question, I was able to speak with longtime MMA referee Mike King, who has been refereeing MMA bouts for the better part of a decade at both the amateur and professional levels. Upon me describing the sequence of events surrounding the foul to him, he immediately took issue with the way it was handled.

“That’s practically rewarding the one fighter for committing the foul. If both guys were OK to continue, I would have returned them to the exact position that they were in before the foul, and had them resume the fight from there. The fighter who was fouled should not be in a sense penalized for being fouled,” King said.

Referee Mike King went on to elaborate that while it may have been hard to place Rossborough’s arms in the exact position that the were in before the foul, he would have at least allowed him to resume with under-hooks as well as allowing him to regain the hooks he had in with his legs. He again stressed the fact it was very wrong that the referee in this particular bout returned the fighters to a standing position, as this could have potentially caused Nick Rossborough to have subsequently lost the bout due to a greater susceptibility to strikes after having been head butted, a point which I definitely agree with. King also said that while no referee has made it through their career without having made mistakes, that such a glaring such as this particular instance should really be examined, and that maybe this particular referee should have some remediation in regards to the rules that he should be enforcing.

While I do agree with the fact that referees are often only spoken of when they screw up yet seldom praised for being on the ball, that still does not take away from the fact that subpar refereeing like the stuff mentioned above should really not be occurring at such a high level as it did last Friday. I definitely hope that Ontario’s Athletic Commission at least reminds that particular referee about the rules of MMA and maybe puts him through some remedial training to make sure that he hopefully doesn’t err in such fashion again.