UFC President Dana White is not happy with how the Jessica-Rose Clark vs. Sarah Alpar fight was re-started in the 3rd round at UFC Las Vegas 11. The fight appeared to have been stopped with 3:35 left in the 3rd round. Alpar was in trouble against the cage and got hit with a knee while falling to the mat.
It looked as though the knee might have been illegal and referee Chris Tognini stepped in. Tognini did not wave off the fight, however, but went to check the replay instead. After determining the knee to have been legal, Tognini restarted the fight. Clark would then dominate her opponent for close to 3 minutes after the re-start before the fight was stopped again.
Dana White addressed the officiating in the fight at the post-event press conference.
“The fight should have been over. That fight should have been over just like last week,” White said. “She got finished, she got stopped. If you’ve got to jump in to look at her or do anything…”
“Her nose was broken,” White continued. “It was a finish. That should have been a finish. I know Marc Ratner’s all over this so it’s just something that needs to be worked out. When you get stopped, and these kids are so tough and durable. That poor girl fought her ass off again after she was able to continue. It just needs to be fixed, they gotta figure it out.”
This is the second event in a row that White has been critical of Chris Tognini’s officiating. White was also critical of his performance during the Ed Herman vs Mike Rodriguez fight last week. During that fight, Herman was granted recovery time for a legal blow that was deemed low by Tognini. Herman then came back to win the fight.
“It’s hard not to bang on this guy, the worst I’ve ever seen,” White said of Tognoni. “He’s f***ing Mazzagatti-level. Some Mazzagatti-level s**t right there. That was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”
