Veteran Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) referee Mario Yamasaki has had his fair share of bad calls and slip-ups throughout his career, but his most recent blunder of waiting too long to stop the fight between Valentina Shevchenko and Priscila Cachoeira was the last straw for the company's president, Dana White.
Shevchenko utterly dominated her opponent, landing a total of 230 strikes on Cachoeira while the latter only managed to land three. Many of Shevchenko's strikes were in the third round, in which Cachoera was no longer able to defend herself properly against her Kyrgyzstani opponent.
According to White, Yamasaki had every opportunity to stop the fight in the third round as Cachoeira was clearly done. But instead, the referee waited until Shevchenko locked in a rear naked choke to stop the match. His indecision was very dangerous since a few seconds of punishment can already cause serious injury to a fighter, and the Brazilian had been receiving unguarded blows for more than 10 seconds until her opponent finally decided to go for the choke.
White took his frustrations to Instagram, in which he posted a shot of the match and criticized Yamasaki for failing in his responsibilities as a referee. He also praised Cachoeira for her gutsy performance in spite of the brutal loss:
"Priscilla Cachoeira, you showed so much heart and toughness in that fight. I'm honored to have you fight in the UFC. Unfortunately, the ref is there to protect you and Mario DID NOT do that. This isn't his first disgusting performance in the octagon. Another unfortunate thing is that I can't do anything about I️t only the Brazilian commission can and I am hoping after this scary, incompetent showing he hopefully will never set foot in that Octagon again," he said.
UFC executive David Shaw told reporters that they are very upset with Yamasaki's poor decision making. In a televised event at Mangueirinho Gymnasium in Brazil, Shaw announced that the UFC will be working with the Brazil Athletic Commission to ensure that such incidents never happen again.
