Daniel Cormier Blasts Referee Dan Miragliotta Over ‘One of the Biggest’ Officiating Errors
Daniel Cormier has seen plenty of questionable officiating throughout his legendary MMA career, but Dan Miragliotta may have topped them all. The former two-division UFC champion blasted the veteran referee for an inexcusable mistake that potentially changed the outcome of a fight.
Cormier isn’t interested in excuses, explanations, or pretending nothing happened. He wants Miragliotta held accountable, and that starts with keeping him away from the cage.
“I will say without a shadow of a doubt, with no second thought in my mind, I may have seen, from right next to the octagon, one of the biggest referee errors I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Cormier said Monday on his YouTube channel.
“What I saw on Saturday night was one of the biggest officiating errors I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And I’m not talking about in the moment. I’m saying this a couple days afterward and sitting on it and thinking on it.”
Cormier couldn’t believe what he was watching when Miragliotta decided to interfere with a fighter who had secured a dominant position. In a sport where gaining back control can take an entire round, Cormier believes the referee had no business interfering. The former two-division UFC champion pointed out that the fighter wasn’t stalling, avoiding action, or doing anything wrong. Instead, Miragliotta decided to take matters into his own hands, potentially robbing a fighter of a hard-earned victory.
“Right away I said, ‘oh my God, this is crazy. You cannot take somebody off of someone’s back. What I care about is knowing that it’s a dominant position,’” Cormier said.
“It is a dominant position. There are positions in fighting that you never change. There was no stalling. He was not being timid. He was actually attempting to try to get to that position.”
Cormier believes Miragliotta’s mistake changed the outcome of the fight, and he’s not interested in hearing excuses. Fighters get punished for their mistakes, so why should referees get a free pass when they screw up? As far as Cormier is concerned, Miragliotta needs to take a seat before another fighter pays the price.
“Dan Miragliotta needs a reset. There’s a show this weekend at the Apex. Dan Miragliotta should not be there. There is a show in New York City where the heavyweight title will be on the line. Dan Miragliotta should not be there,” Cormier said.
“It is so clear that the mistake led to the change in the outcome that you have to have a penalty. Everybody else is held accountable. We’re all held accountable for our actions. Nobody should be above that, officials included. This is not me just sh*tting on Dan Miragliotta. This is not me going at anyone. I don’t want to do that. But you’ve got to be held accountable for your actions when they’re bad.”
Whether the athletic commission agrees with Cormier remains to be seen, but the former champion believes Miragliotta crossed a line. Fighters don’t get a free pass for costly mistakes, and Cormier sees no reason why referees should be any different.
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