The primary role of an MMA referee is to ensure the safety of fighters by stopping the fight whenever required. However, like all humans, they are prone to mistakes and can occasionally make a wrong call effectively changing the bout’s outcome. Popular MMA referee Marc Goddard recently appeared on The Overdogs Podcast, where he took the audience through the ins and outs of being an official, and explained why he chooses not to officiate certain matches.
During the interview, Goddard was asked if there is any fighter that he will never referee or is not allowed to referee. To this, the referee took Leon Edwards’ name and claimed he would never officiate his matches since he had coached the fighter during his amateur years. Naturally, this might have created an involuntary bias towards Edwards and Goddard did not want that to come between his duty, as he said,
“I don’t want to be put in a predicament where I am making a call that could go against him and that works both ways.”
In addition to this, Goddard went on to share a story on why he declined the opportunity to referee the rematch between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira. While he was the one who officiated their first encounter, ‘The Last Stylebender’ felt that the fight was stopped prematurely. Goddard believed his presence might distract Adesanya in the rematch and thus, chose to step away.
Well, speaking about Adesanya, the 34-year-old will step into the octagon a few weeks from today to try and claim what he once lost.
Adesanya to become a three-time middleweight champion?
At UFC 305 in Perth, ‘The Last Style Bender’ will take on Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight belt. Adesanya lost the belt to Sean Strickland who consequently lost it to Dricus Du Plessis at the start of this year.
Ever since ‘Stillknocks’ won the fight, Adesanya has been restless at the chance of securing another title shot. ‘The Last Style Bender’ stated in recent interviews that he does not care about belts anymore and that he just wants to collect heads now. Moreover, he will be hoping that the referee in charge gives him a fighting chance if things do not go his way at any point.