Former UFC referee Mario Yamasaki thinks Dana White's criticisms of his officiating abilities were uncalled for.
Yamasaki, 58, has served as an MMA referee for over 20 years and has called some of the biggest fights in UFC history. The referee was notorious for stopping fights too late, which often meant fighters would take unnecessary damage. UFC boss White decided to ban Yamasaki from refereeing any more fights in the promotion after he refused to stop Valentina Shevchenko's fight against Priscila Cachoeira in 2018, despite Shevchenko landing over 200 strikes compared to Cachoeira's three.
White said of Yamasaki's officiating in the fight: "I think it's disgusting and he's disgusting. I never want to see him reffing ever again. For that idiot to say he gave her [Cachoeira] the opportunity to be a warrior? No, you moron, you are there to protect her from herself. He makes me sick, that guy has no business reffing fights and I promise you, you're never gonna see him again."
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Yamasaki has now spoken out about White's comments in a rare interview with Talkin' MMA as he said: "I think Dana was a little too harsh on me, because I’m not that bad. 20 years there and he always came to me, we’d talk a lot, and for him to just be a media guy, and destroy a guy. That wasn’t that bad.
"Let’s say I referee 800 fights, and I f***ed up in four. The only thing that shows in my history are the four fucked up fights that I did, because those are the ones they keep pushing, pushing, pushing,” Yamasaki added. “What Dana said about me, ‘Oh, he’ll never step foot in the octagon again,’ those are the things that show most, not my 796 fights that I did right. They don’t care. They only care what you did wrong.”
Yamasaki isn't the only MMA referee who has been criticised by White, with the UFC boss also taking at aim at Steve Mazzagatti for his refereeing decisions. Former UFC champion Israel Adesanya also recently joked that he would still be champion if Mazzagatti, who was also known for his late stoppages, was calling his fight.
Since being stripped of his UFC refereeing credentials, Yamasaki has refereed fights for the PFL and MMA Brazil Tour, a regional promotion in Brazil. Yamasaki admitted that if the UFC did approach him again about refereeing fights, he would be open to taking up his former role for the promotion.
