Marc Goddard was in the right when he stood Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus du Plessis up during their middleweight title fight at UFC 319 last week.
That’s according to fellow veteran UFC referee Herb Dean, who spoke to Helen Yee about the fight and the decision to stand it up despite Chimaev having du Plessis trapped in the crucifix position.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with his stand ups,” Dean said. “Khamzat dominated the five rounds, and this is a ongoing conversation that everyone in the stakeholders and everyone in the sport has. What do we want this sport to look like? Do we want people to achieve a a dominant position, which if you’re not using it to beat your opponent, could almost be looked at as a hiding place, as a place to burn time?”
“I’m never gonna accuse Khamzat of hiding because the man’s a savage. But if you get a position like — we can break that one down — the crucifix, chest to chest position, not a lot of height. Very difficult to get to a place where you can punch your opponent. Sometimes he’s able to get elbows … It takes a risk to make some space, to posture to where you’re gonna be able to maybe finish the fight. And I think that’s what we want our sport to look like. So I’m okay with those stand ups that Mark Goddard did.”
Following the bout, there were complaints on both sides. Some — including DDP’s coach — felt like Goddard should have stood the fight up more. Some suggested he was blatantly trying to help du Plessis win by freeing him from those rough positions. Regardless of how you feel about his performance, the rules certainly gave him ample leeway to do what he did.
“The rules say the referee shall either stand up or break the fighters when neither fighter is able to or fails to demonstrate real, significant, and or sustained effort to advance towards finishing the fight by any method,” Magraken said in a social media video. “Simply maintaining what may be perceived as a superior position will not be considered effort to advance towards finishing the fight nor grounds for a guaranteed opportunity to maintain that position.”
“So this is pretty black and white: just because you’re in a better position on the ground, top side control, top half guard, mount, you’re not guaranteed to stay there. You have to try to finish the fight. Offensive output alone isn’t enough to stay there. If there’s some pitter patter shots that aren’t doing any damage, the referee still has discretion to stand the fighters up.”
“What they’re looking for is the fighter in the dominant position still trying, making some effort towards attempting to finish the fight,” he concluded. “Absent that, the referee does have discretion to stand the fighters up.”