Dana White, a UFC president publicly slammed veteran referee Mario Yamasaki for his officiating of a women’s bout at UFC Fight Night 125 on Saturday in Belem, Brazil.
There were many people horrified by Mario Yamasaki’s delayed stoppage of Valentina Shevchenko and Priscila Cachoeira in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 125.
As expected, Valentina Shevchenko won in dominant fashion, battered the Brazilian Cachoeira practically from the opening seconds, then submitting her with a rear-naked choke at the end of round 2. FightMetric recorded the total strike count as 230-3 in favor of Shevchenko, with a comically lopsided 95-2 count in significant strikes. Yamasaki didn’t intervene and had ample opportunity to end the bout earlier Cachoeira essentially defenseless, but he waited for Shevchenko to lock in a choke and Priscila Cachoeira to tap out.
Dana White, UFC president, took to social media to slam Mario Yamasaki for what many thought was an egregiously late stoppage in the UFC Belem and praised Cachoeira for her toughness.
“Priscilla Cachoeira, you showed so much heart and toughness in that fight,” White wrote. “I’m honored to have you fight in the UFC. Unfortunately the ref is there to protect you and Mario DID NOT do that. This isn’t his first disgusting performance in the octagon. Another unfortunate thing is that i can’t do anything about I️t only the Brazilian commission can and i am hoping after this scary, incompetent showing he hopefully will never set foot in that Octagon again. Strikes landed was 230-3.”
Yamasaki has been the source of criticism before. He publicly apologized for a late stoppage of a UFC heavyweight bout between Derrick Lewis and Travis Browne in February 2017 at UFC Halifax.
Not only that Mario did it again, couple months later, UFC lightweight Michael Chiesa tried to appeal a loss to Kevin Lee, after Mario Yamasaki stopped the fight due to a choke, even though Chiesa didn’t tap.
UFC executive David Shaw had some words in the post-fight press conference.
Shaw on Yamasaki: We’ll be working with the commission to make sure a situation like that doesn't happen again. #UFCBelem
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) February 4, 2018
