UFC President Dana White has been a busy man of late. Besides running an MMA empire, he also recently launched the new television series, Power Slap. However, he took time out of his schedule to weigh in on the officiating controversy currently taking place in Fury FC.
Last Friday, Fury FC presented an event on UFC Fight Pass, which also took place in Texas. The night’s flyweight bout, between Edgar Cháirez and Gianni Vazquez, ended with what appeared to be a missed call for stoppage on a submission hold.
Ridiculous scene at Fury FC. Edgar Cháirez puts Gianni Vazquez to sleep with a triangle, and the ref simply doesn’t stop it. Cháirez ends up armbarring an unconscious Vazquez who wakes up in the submission. #Furyfc76 pic.twitter.com/AgcwI2i3ss
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) March 25, 2023
With under four minutes left in the final round. Cháirez caught Vazquez in a triangle choke. At around the 3:34 mark, Vasquez would go unconscious.
However, referee Frank Collazo allowed Cháirez to continue moving his hips, rolling the triangle choke into a gruesome armbar submission. Afterward, Vazquez said that he suffered dislocated ligaments and a potential fracture that will require further examination.
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Dana White commented on Collazo’s poor judgment and said that the situation should never occur under any circumstances.
“That’s the kind of stuff that I really, really don’t like,” White said. “If a guy gets choked unconscious and you don’t know he’s choked unconscious… Everybody had a bad night. Everybody makes mistakes, but a guy gets choked unconscious, and then they pull him into an armbar.”
“It doesn’t get any worse than that. … You shouldn’t be a reffing if that happens, in my opinion.”
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) reacted to all the controversy by issuing its own statement to MMA Junkie regarding the fight and Coallazo’s actions leading up to its potentially scary conclusion.
“TDLR is aware of concerns about the officiating in one of last night’s fights,” the statement read. “All TDLR officials receive ongoing training and we monitor each fight for consistency in officiating. Fight officials for each competition are always selected in conjunction with promoters.”
Fury FC also published a statement on Facebook. It states, “It is the referee’s job to protect the fighter when the fighter cannot protect him or herself. In last night’s main event, the referee failed to do this. While the job of a referee is one of the hardest to do in this sport, the need for proper and continued training would help to alleviate things like this incident.”
They added, “We do not hire, train or select refs for our shows, but we would be more than willing to lead a revamp and overhaul of the reffing and judging selection and training process.”
According to the website Sherdog.com, Collazo has officiated 129 MMA bouts since 2014.
