You've been Mazza-GOT-ti'd!

There has been a lot talk about bad calls being made in MMA bouts, and with no great surprise, one refs name seems to come up more than others -- Steve Mazzagatti.

Referee Steve Mazzagatti has had to fend off criticism from fighters, fans, and officials concerning some of the calls he's made. Most recently, his call in the Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns bout at UFN 14 where Burns repeatedly poked Johnson in the eye and eventually shoved his finger so far into his eye that Johnson threw himself on the ground writhing in pain. Mazzagatti, claiming he didn't see the eye poke, called it a TKO making Burns the winner by... eye poke?

With a crticial fight on Saturday, UFC Heavyweight fighter Brock Lesnar has vocally said he is still upset with the call Mazzagatti made during his UFC debut bout with Frank Mir. The ex-professional wrestler was raining down hammer fists on Mir moments into the first round when Mazzagatti stopped the action, deducted 1-point from Lesnar for shots to the back of the head and then stood both fighters back up. Mir was eventually able to recover and submitted Lesnar for the win.

Mazzagatti claims to have given Lesnar two verbal warnings for the strikes to the back of the head. Lesnar still claims he was given no warning, which is the source of a lot of debate between fans some who some claim to have heard the warnings when looking at a play of the fight via Tivo. Others claim that there were no warnings at all and that Mazzagatti was playing favorites by stopping the action to give Mir time to recover.

Whether you can hear the warnings on a playback are far from the point of contention which is, did Lesnar hear the warnings IF Mazzagatti did in fact give them like he claims? Muttered warnings can easily be washed out by all the yelling and commotion from the audience and any referee worth his weight would know that. The second point of contention is, why did Mazzagatti stop the fight and then stand it back up? Was that necessary? I can not recall any fight where the action was stopped within a few moments of the first round and then started again because of shots to the back of the head.

Steve Cofield from MMA Sports Blog (A Yahoo! Sports Blog) breaks down the most notable "Mazza-GOT-ti" reffing mistakes:

• Jamie Varner v. Rob McCullough @ WEC 32
  Varner loses his mouthpiece and actually stops fighting then signals his own timeout. Varner, who looked wobbly, is actually granted a stoppage by Mazzagatti.
  
• Kevin Burns v. Anthony Johnson @ UFN 14
  Burns clearly poked Johnson in the right eye. Johnson went down in a heap. Mazzagatti stopped the fight awarding a TKO victory to Burns.
  
• Gray Maynard v. Rob Emerson @ TUF 5 Finale
  Maynard slammed Emerson but in the process knocked himself out. The win is initially given to Maynard before ringside officials cleared things up for Mazzagatti and the fight was ruled a no-contest.
  
• Jamie Varner v. Marcus Hicks @ WEC 35
  This is the type of fight where Mazzagatti scares some people. Hicks was knocked down and out with 3:12 left in the first round. He then took 19 additional punches and three knees to the face before the fight is stopped 20 seconds later.
• Mike Whitehead v. Vernon White at IFL - Las Vegas
  Whitehead had White's back and rained down punches. He then told Mazzagatti that White had tapped. Mazzagatti clearly didn't see it but honored Whitehead's 'official' call and stopped it. Coach Ken Shamrock is seen on the ring apron screaming at Mazzagatti, "that was a horrible f**kin call!"
  
• Shayna Baszler v. Cristiane Santos @ Elite XC
  Santos knocked down Baszler with 1:31 left in the first then prematurely celebrated her victory by jumping on the top of the cage. Santos carried on for 13 seconds while Mazzagatti stood in the middle of the ring and screamed "hey" in Santos' direction to keep fighting. The Portuguese-speaking Santos had no idea what Mazzagatti was saying. Instead of a disqualification, Santos was allowed to come back down from the cage and the action was restarted around 1:08. Santos went on to finish Baszler. 
• Babalu v. David Heath @ UFC 74
  The pre-fight included a war of words between the fighters. Babalu got in position for an anaconda choke finish. Mazzagatti stopped he fight and Heath held onto the choke for an extra three seconds. Some think Mazzagatti didn't do all he could to force Babalu to stop.
  
• Thiago Alves v. Karo Parisyan @ UFN 13
  Alves stopped Parisyan with one big knee and then two punches on his arm. Parisyan was beside himself and actually pushed UFC fight booker Joe Silva several times in the cage as he protested the Mazzagatti stoppage.

In any sport there will always be calls from officials that the fans will question. It happens in football, basketball and baseball all the time. So what makes this any different? For me, it is the sheer number of instances where the momemtum of the fight (and possible the outcome) can be attributted to Steve Mazzagatti's reffing.

I am sure the number of bouts Mazzagatti has fairly and legitimately reffed far outweighs the handful of bouts listed above. I hope that Steve is aware of the spotlight that is on him right now and will be mindful of the decisions he makes as a referee. I know that as a fan of MMA, I will be paying close attention to any bout being referreed by Steve Mazzagatti in the future.