UFC referees have been under increasing scrutiny lately. With nearly every event, new controversies seem to emerge around officiating decisions. Take UFC 326 as a recent example. Veteran referee Herb Dean faced criticism for his handling of fouls—particularly low blows—while officiating the fight between Diyar Nurgozhay and Rafael Tobias. Now, at UFC Vegas 114, while the official in charge may be different, the controversy surrounding refereeing appears to be pretty much the same.

“That’s a huge miss on an eye poke by referee Keith Peterson,” MMA journalist Adam Martin stated on X. “Potentially changed the entire outcome of the fight. Wow.”

“Keith Peterson should have taken a point for multiple low blows,” Martin added in another tweet. “Stop letting guys get away with this UFC Vegas114.”

One of the early prelim bouts between Luan Lacerda and Hecher Sosa was competitive, with both fighters enjoying moments of success. However, controversy arose in the third round when Lacerda attempted to signal to referee Keith Peterson that he had been poked in the eye.

The referee did not grant a pause, and Sosa immediately capitalized on the moment with a punch. In the end, Sosa defeated Lacerda by unanimous decision. But that wasn’t all for referee Keith Peterson.

He later officiated the bout between Bolaji Oki and Manoel Sousa. Sousa appeared to gain the upper hand in the opening exchanges. Then an incident occurred in the second when Oki framed and pushed off, inadvertently getting a finger in Sousa’s eye.

Sousa backed away immediately as Peterson called time, and the cageside doctor briefly checked on him before the fight resumed. Despite this, no points were deducted for the eye poke, which is what prompted veteran journalist Adam Martin to call Peterson out.

As Martin pointed out, until then, Oki appeared to be winning on the scorecards. However, seemingly enraged by the poke, Sousa stepped on the gas, knocking Oki out at 4:12 of Round 3. Oh, if you thought that was all, you’re wrong.

The officiating came under further scrutiny during the main-card bout between Charles Johnson and Bruno Silva. The three-round fight was progressing at a steady pace until the third round, when Silva closed in for a takedown, and the two fighters clashed heads, forcing a brief stoppage. Shortly after the bout resumed, Silva landed two low blows, resulting in another break in the action. Despite the foul, Peterson chose not to deduct a point, prompting Martin to call him out again.

Johnson had appeared to win the previous rounds, but following the low blows, Silva gained momentum in the exchanges. Since the foul happened towards the end, fortunately for Charles Johnson, it wasn’t enough to make too much of a difference. But it was definitely close. Johnson defeated the Brazilian via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27). It’s also worth noting that a similar foul occurred earlier in the night during the opening prelim between Sam Hughes and Piera Rodriguez.

In the first round, Hughes accidentally poked Rodriguez in the eye, briefly halting the action. Referee Chris Tognoni officiated that bout. All in all, the issues with referees continued, as has become a fashion with UFC events lately. However, none of these incidents compares to what happened during UFC 326.

Why was Cody Garbrandt allowed to continue fighting after vomiting?

At UFC 326, Cody Garbrandt vomited during his bout with Long Xiao after a low blow briefly incapacitated him. So, why was he allowed to continue fighting? According to the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, a fighter who visibly loses control of bodily function (vomit, urine, feces) during a round is typically ruled unable to continue, resulting in a TKO loss due to medical stoppage.

However, here the situation was treated differently because Garbrandt’s vomiting occurred during a referee timeout following illegal groin strikes. Veteran referee John McCarthy explained the reasoning on social media.

“The Cody Garbrandt vomiting situation was handled beautifully by Herb Dean and the NSAC Ringside Physician,” he wrote. “Cody was fouled, and a timeout was called by Herb. Cody has up to 5 minutes to recover from the foul.” 

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Because the vomiting happened during that recovery period, officials allowed the fight to continue after the physician determined Garbrandt could safely proceed.

That said, it seems that with every UFC event, more referees are coming under scrutiny. Is it really that difficult to consistently punish illegal shots, or is there another reason some incidents appear to be overlooked?