A quality MMA referee is focused, strict, and has a strong understanding of the sport. Knowing the rules and how to utilise them is ane affair, simply agreement the intricacies of the fight game is another thing entirely. Referees in the UFC must be on top of their game in the Octagon.

The best referees can ref a fight and draw little to no attention to themselves in the procedure, but that's easier said than done. Stepping in between 2 trained killers is an unenviable chore but those with the courage to do so deserve respect until proven otherwise.

ten Best: Marc Goddard

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A former fighter himself Marc Goddard was seven-6-1 when he stepped away from competing. But he couldn't footstep away from the cage entirely, becoming an MMA ref on short notice in 2004 when a promoter was let downward by a ref.

Now a referee for the UFC and many other organizations, Marc has proven himself a skilled ref with an incredible knowledge of the game. He nevertheless calls himself a fighter trapped in a ref's body.

9 Worst: Steve Mazzaggati

Steve-Mazzagatti
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If you've watched MMA for the past x years, you know who Steve Mazzaggati is. Once a ref for the UFC, he proved he was unfit for the job time and time again.

He has missed countless eye pokes, missed fighters going unconscious via submission, and let fights keep way longer than they should accept. Dana White has said he will never ref the UFC again.

8 Best: Big John McCarthy

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A erstwhile referee himself now turned commentator. Big John McCarthy currently works as an analyst for Bellator and has later stepped away from the refereeing side of things.

Big John was one of the first refs in the sport and helped gear up the unified rules of MMA in his early days as a ref. He is arguably one of the most respected refs to have e'er done it.

7 Worst: Mario Yamasaki

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Getting blacklisted past Dana White and the UFC is probably i of the worst things that can happen to an MMA ref. This is exactly what happened to Mario Yamasaki.

Known for letting fighters be "warriors", he continuously let fights go one manner longer than they should take to force fighters to have immense amounts of unnecessary punishment and put their lives at risk.

6 Best: Herb Dean

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Love him or hate him, Herb Dean has been around the fight game the longest as an MMA ref. He's made good calls and bad calls, but he is the most experienced.

Anybody remembers his bad calls like the Ben Askren vs Robbie Lawler fight where he idea Robbie went out, but he was fine. He as well has phenomenal calls similar his Frank Mir vs Tim Sylvia fight where he was the but one in the loonshit to come across Tim'due south arm snap, and information technology was later caught on review.

v Worst: Al Guinee

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You lot may non remember this guy, most likely considering of his short UFC tenure. He stepped in i night to ref a fight at UFC 263 between Jamal Hill and Paul Craig.

Arguably the worst functioning by a ref to date, Jamal Loma had compromised his right shoulder and had his left arm dislocated every bit he tried to tap directly in front of the ref who let Paul Craig go along to strike and torque on the already injured arm.

iv Best: Mark Smith

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Marking Smith may non be on the top of everyone'southward list, but in that location is non a more than principled human than him in the UFC. A former fighter airplane pilot who notwithstanding contests the Air Forcefulness's alleged racial injustice to this date, Mark has somehow found his fashion to the UFC.

A dandy-eyed, competent, and unwavering referee, Mark Smith is one of the best in the business and volition simply get meliorate.

3 Worst: Vyacheslav Kiselev

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1 of the brilliant things about the UFC is that when it becomes clear that an incompetent Ref is in the ring, they will not be chosen back to ref the UFC. They will besides instantly be pulled from reffing any fights for the rest of that nighttime.

This is the case with Vyacheslav Kiselev who at UFC 267 let a fight between Benoit St Denis and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos continue much longer than it should have. At i bespeak, Denis said he couldn't see, and the ref let the fight go on. A flagrant miss on the ref'south function to allow the fight continue.

2 Best: Jason Herzog

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The ever-active Jason Herzog has been a ref in the UFC and Bellator since 2009. Since and then, he seemingly has not placed a foot wrong as a referee. A true student of the game, who takes his ain mistakes to middle and improves from each outing.

Herzog has refereed some of the biggest fights of the past 10 years and one of the great parts near those years is how fiddling his proper noun comes upwards in the conversation of those fights. The all-time refs are the ones that are least noticed.

1 Worst: Cecil Peoples

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A ref for Bellator, Peoples was known for his odd antics and terrible refereeing. In i of his most atrocious outings as a ref, he missed a tap in a fight betwixt Owen Rubio and Mike Gonzalez, allowing Rubio to come back and win. Not only known for his awful refereeing, just he has also graced the UFC with his judging. Coming up short in both his referee career and judging career, Cecil Peoples is not very well-liked in the MMA community.

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