FanHouse Steve Mazzagatti

UFC President Dana White had some harsh, and profane, words for referee Steve Mazzagatti in an appearance on the Opie & Anthony Show.

Brock Lesnar has two reasons to be happy about UFC 100: He's getting a rematch with Frank Mir (who beat him at UFC 81), and Steve Mazzagatti is not the referee this time. But Lesnar doesn't seem happy.

First thing's first. Matt Serra was not robbed at UFC 98. Neither though, did he lose. After two years of back and forth, after injuries delayed their original fight, and after 15 minutes in the octagon, the two Matts were fit to be tied, and their match should have been ruled a draw.

The judges, however, saw things differently. After three rounds, they gave Matt Hughes a 29-28 across-the-board win. They no doubt gave Serra the first round, and Hughes the final two.

The fight was close enough that neither fighter was quite sure whose name ring announcer Bruce Buffer would call.

MMA referees are appointed by the state athletic commissions and don't work for the UFC or any other promotion. That's good for Steve Mazzagatti, because a whole lot of folks in the UFC don't like him.

UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has made it clear that he doesn't want Mazzagatti refereeing his fights anymore, after a controversial stand-up benefited Frank Mir in Lesnar's UFC debut. And UFC President Dana White was critical of Mazzagatti after UFC 92, where Mazzagatti allowed Mostapha Al-Turk to take a series of blows from Cheick Kongo, long after it was clear that Al-Turk was hurt and stood no chance of getting out of the first round.

And now Kenny Florian is piling on. This week on ESPN.com's MMA Live, Florian suggested that Mazzagatti simply isn't fit for the job.

"I think someone should have gotten him glasses for Christmas," Florian said. "I'll be honest, he really has been late with a lot of his calls, and it has been a consistent thing with him."

When Florian fights B.J. Penn for the lightweight title this year, I have a feeling Mazzagatti won't be the third man in the Octagon.

How good was Frank Mir's 2008?

Mir, the new UFC interim heavyweight champion, had two fights this year. In one, he beat the biggest, strongest fighter to come along in MMA in years, Brock Lesnar. In the other, he finished the hardest fighter to stop in MMA history, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

And it took Mir less than nine minutes, total, to beat them both.

Wagnney Fabiano beat Akitoshi Tamura with a third-round submission at WEC 37 tonight in Las Vegas, earning a solid -- if not spectacular -- win in his World Extreme Cagefighting debut.

Tamura threw a couple of kicks in the early going, but Fabiano, a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, quickly got the fight on the ground. There wasn't a lot of action on the ground in the first round, as both fighters were cautious, but there was a lot of high-level jiu jitsu positioning, and Fabiano did some damage with his elbows.

They had a good exchange on their feet early in the second, but they quickly went to the ground again. At first Tamura controlled Fabiano from rubber guard and appeared to be going on the offensive, but after a few minutes on the ground with little action, referee Steve Mazzagatti stood them up. It quickly went back to the ground again, however, and Fabiano did a little damage before the bell.

In Brock Lesnar's UFC debut, he took Frank Mir to the ground immediately and pounded him furiously. But just when Lesnar looked like he might be on his way to a quick TKO, referee Steve Mazzagatti stood them up, saying Lesnar had committed a foul. Shortly after the stand-up, Mir used his superior jiu jitsu to submit Lesnar with a knee bar. Now Lesnar says he doesn't want Mazzagatti to ref his fight with Randy Couture at UFC 91, and Mazzagatti says he's fine with that:

"I'm going to enjoy watching the fight," Mazzagatti said. "It's going to be a great fight, both athletes bring a lot to the sport and I'm going to enjoy watching it."

At Wednesday's UFC Fight Night, James Irvin stopped Houston Alexander in eight seconds for the fastest knockout in UFC history. Here's a look:

Alexander got up after referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the fight and protested, saying he could have continued. That's no surprise; boxers and mixed martial arts fighters are tough competitors, and they almost always want to keep going. But it's the referee's job to stop the fight if the fighter is at risk of getting seriously hurt, and Mazzagatti did that job.

So I've been surprised how many people I've heard from in the last couple of days who think Alexander was right, and that Mazzagatti really did stop the fight too quickly. Sorry, but that's just not the way it works.

There's a reason that the referee's instruction "protect yourself at all times" has become such a well-established part of boxing and MMA: If at any point a fighter isn't able to protect himself, that ends the fight. Alexander was sprawled on the canvas and not protecting himself, and that was all Mazzagatti had to see. Congratulations to Steve Mazzagatti for doing his job perfectly.