Ariel Helwani declares Mario Yamasaki unfit to be a referee.

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

The mermaid has spoken

 

[Boomb]

http://www.grappling.com

 

[Boomb]

No Ariel thread is complete without this gif.

 

[SirKratos]

Hilarious, this has been said on Sherdog plenty of times but people bash Ariel when he says it

 

[swarrrm]

Mario, Steve and Kate should never ref again

Herb Dean can go too

 

[whougonnacall]

This shit's getting way out of proportion. Blame pricilla's corner, girl had a torn acl and they didn't give a fuck. You know what's a terrible stoppage? Weidman vs munoz, khabib vs tavares. This one isn't.

This he askes her afew times of she was ok
He couldnt have known about the acl
Far too many unprofessional cornermen in mma

 

[Magnum1978]

I dunno, I'm an old school fan, and although this mismatch never should have been made, technically Yamasaki didn't do that much wrong, the fighter was still responding to instructions and attempting to intelligently defend herself.

Although to most it was a foregone conclusion, you can't just stop the fight because 'it looks bad'. There was no "killer" blow. You give the fighter absolutely every chance, and I agree there is a fine line, but we've seen much worse prior and probably will since. Yugi Shimada similarly has left fights go way long and is probably cut from that 'old school' cloth, like Yamasaki. Guys like Sakuraba have come back and won from worse beatings, yes I know its Sakuraba, but still.

I'm torn, I can see both sides. Personally I think Khabib put Barbosa through more of the ringer than Valentina did to her opponent on the weekend. Where as that fight should have been made, Valentina's never should have been, and that's the fault of the UFC.

 

[Mask Of Winters]

So was Yamasaki "letting her be a warrior" when he ignored her first two taps?

The man clearly was determined not to stop that fight. Had nothing to do with 'warrior spirit" or whatever justification people are using. I'm convinced he was "persuaded' to let the Brazilian in Brazil fight on literally as long as she wasn't unconscious or didn't tap (and even then he didn't really want to call it off). I could get paid to just stand in there watching someone get years taken off their life, but does that make me qualified to be a ref? What's the point of even having a ref in there, then? Everybody watching can see a KO or tap. Might as well just wait until that happens to declare a fight over and eliminate TKOs altogether. Of course then you'd have athletic commissions wanting to ban MMA when someone gets beaten into a quivering bloody mess but isn't unconscious so the fight goes on. But I'm sure they'll change their minds after you guys call them giant pussies on here, right?

 

[IGotAHugePeckah]

While I disagree with Ariel here, your reasoning is completely bullshit.
It doesn't make sense to say that someone who worked in some industry say oil and gas, automobile manufacturing or showbusiness like pro wrestling are somehow suddenly unfit to work as a journalist reporting on those same sectors.

And Ariel didn't work for the UFC, he worked for Fox. All major league sports have the same arrangement with network tv stations that air pre/post show segments.

"Your reasoning is completely bullshit"

No actually I'm just stating facts that you will find in ANY journalism handbook and be taught in ANY journalism course.

You just look moronic trying to defend it because the very same guy you're defending went live on his show and ADMITTED GUILT.

 

[Hunt.]

It really wasn't that bad of a stoppage. You have to look at the damage that she was doing. Yes at some points she got some good elbows in but she did not throw like 10 she threw 1-2 and then another 2 or something like that, and they did do damage just not that she was in any danger. It was a huge mismatch but that is what the UFC wanted they wanted her to get a stoppage a TKO or KO and then Dana complains it was not stopped earlier... yes it could have been stopped but not for the normal reasons that a fighter is not fighting back when in danger or almost unconscious. Simply for being really outmatched, but UFC made that fight, if she would put more pressure and attack with more furiosity it would have been stoppped but she just threw some shots rested threw some more and so on... she doesn't know how to get a TKO and lacks the power and teq. to get a KO + that girl was really tough.

 

[nhbfan8080]

"Your reasoning is completely bullshit"

No actually I'm just stating facts that you will find in ANY journalism handbook and be taught in ANY journalism course.

You just look moronic trying to defend it because the very same guy you're defending went live on his show and ADMITTED GUILT.

Nope. You don't know the facts.
I'm not blindly defending Ariel Helwani here. I disagree with his assessment of Yamasaki but you are completely wrong about what you said about journalistic ethics.

Helwani does not have an ethical conflict of interest here. He does not work for the UFC or has worked for the UFC directly. He worked for Fox. What he admitted was that he knew that the UFC was paying Fox for pre/post show segments which is common in other major league sports but is acceptable since the journalists are not being coached to tweak their content and there is nothing underhanded going on. What made him uncomfortable is morons like you who will bring it up as a conflict of interest.

If Helwani took money from the UFC and softpedaled his articles and questions then there would be a conflict of interest but that is hardly the case. He is being mostly evenhanded on issues. There are people whom the UFC gives 'travelling' money to come and cover their events and they will never bring up uncomfortable questions like the fighters-union or whether Conor is stripped of the belt. Those are the 'journalists' who have low ethical standards.

Unless you can reasonably prove or even hint that there is a quid pro quo arrangement going on, you don't know what you are talking about.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Tired of these bullshit band wagons that target referees.

Everyone involved is to blame for that outcome.

We see shitty stoppages all the time and no one says a peep about them.

1. Not everyone involved is to blame; it is the ref's job to stop the fight.

2. Shitty stoppages usually generate several threads apiece around here. What shit stoppage that no one talked about are you referring to?

 

[magicmarker]

I think fighters would prefer Yamasaki letting them be warriors over Goddard issuing random stand-up breaks and screaming at the fighters "I control the fight, I control this fight..."

 

[WannaB]

Why is he so damn sweaty?

Gross!

 

[BakaSurvivor]

It was a pretty fucking terrible comment. Like why even say shit like "I allowed her to be a warrior" when you've made absolutely terribly early calls too? Why didn't you allow them to "be a warrior"? I think MUCH more of the blame lies on the matchmaker, but in my opinion, I think a bit of Brazilian loyalty played a part here with Yamasaki.

 

[NotSurprised]

Mario's belt is irrelevant. The guy has a long history of making terrible calls as a referee. That's what is relevant in discussing whether or not he should continue reffing.

Yep. Like him or not Ariel got it right.

 

[BakaSurvivor]

With everyone saying "fuck the corner, they should of done something"....doesn't the rule State that only the REFEREE or DOCTOR can stop the fight? The corner can throw in the towel but the ref can just ignore it.

 

[da best eva]

Shitty calls happen in all sports on a nightly basis, only difference is this is brutally violent sport.

Corner should have thrown in the towel if the beating was so heinous.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Mario did fine.

Prior to the tap-out...at what point exactly do you whiners think Mario should have stopped the fight?

That girl was intelligently defending herself the whole time

 

[Thuckey]

Yeah well not too long ago the UFC declared you unfit to even be in the damn arena but then you cried and they felt bad for you so just let you back in