As far as weekends go, Texas probably has had better – at least in terms of MMA.
But at the big UFC show in San Antonio on Saturday, as well as at Fury FC 76 the night before, there were issues with judging and refereeing that had the MMA community raising its collective eyebrow the way of Texas and its athletic commission.
It’s not like the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation had a sterling reputation and Friday-Saturday was just a bump in the road. To paraphrase Stinger in the first “Top Gun”: “Let’s not bullsh*t, Texas. Your commission name ain’t the best in MMA.”
At Fury FC 76, referee Frank Collazo failed to see Edgar Chairez had choked Gianni Di Chiara Vazquez unconscious in the fourth round. Even though the broadcast team practically was screaming for him to stop the fight, he didn’t shut things down until Vazquez woke up from the choke and tapped to an armbar. The MMA world instantly was outraged at Collazo.
At UFC on ESPN 44 in San Antonio, a handful of judge scores were questionable, to say the least. And in a perfect storm of irony, Collazo was one of the judges at the event – though he didn’t have any referee duties.
So what’s going on with the Texas commission that its reputation for this kind of stuff precedes it – and we still have incidents that force the conversation? How can the commission make improvements, especially considering there is no shortage of events in the state?
That’s what we asked this week’s “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Mike Bohn and Nolan King, along with host Simon Samano. Check out their analysis in the video above, and don’t miss this week’s full episode below.
“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Monday LIVE on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel.
