Daniel Cormier had a few days to cool off. His view of Dan Miragliotta’s call hasn’t changed.
Cormier was on commentary for the UFC Vegas 123 main event when Miragliotta stood up Renato Moicano and Tom Nolan in the second round. Moicano had Nolan’s back with a body triangle locked in at the time. Nolan rocked Moicano with punches to close the round, then finished him in the third.
On his YouTube channel Monday, Cormier didn’t soften his take.
I will say, without a shadow of a doubt, with no second thought in my mind, I may have seen, from right next to the octagon, one of the biggest referee errors I’ve ever seen in my entire life. What I saw on Saturday night was one of the biggest officiating errors I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And I’m not talking about in the moment. I’m saying this a couple days afterward and sitting on it and thinking on it.
Cormier said he knew right away that something was off.
Right away I said, ‘Oh my God, this is crazy.’ … You cannot take somebody off of someone’s back. … I don’t care what the rule is. What I care about is knowing that it’s a dominant position. It is a dominant position. There are positions in fighting that you never change.
There was no stalling. He was not being timid. He was actually attempting to try to get to that position.
Cormier thinks Nolan likely would have won anyway, since Moicano was tired from “maxing out his effort” on the ground. Still, he wants the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which oversaw the event at the Meta APEX, to act.
Dan Miragliotta needs a reset. There’s a show this weekend at the Apex; Dan Miragliotta should not be there. There is a show in New York City where the heavyweight title will be on the line; Dan Miragliotta should not be there.
It is so clear that the mistake led to the change in the outcome that you have to have a penalty. Everybody else is held accountable. We’re all held accountable for our actions. Nobody should be above that, officials included. This is not me just s—ting on Dan Miragliotta. This is not me going at anyone; I don’t want to do that. But you’ve got to be held accountable for your actions when they’re bad.
Cormier is far from alone. Kenny Florian ripped the stand-up, John McCarthy said it gave Nolan an unfair advantage, and Moicano said the crowd influenced the decision.
