Nevada State Athletic Commission Keith Kizer has been a popular man in regards to the last UFC pay per view on February 4th. Most people just wanted his opinion and insight on the Nick Diaz positive test issue, but one thing that confused a lot of fans sort of flew under the radar - why did referee Herb Dean take two points at one time from Alex Caceres for an illegal groin kick on Edwin Figueroa? Could he even do that? MMA Fighting tracked down Kizer and asked him about it. Here's what he had to say:
"That's something I asked him about afterward," Kizer said. "We went through that at the post-fight meeting for UFC 143 and he explained himself from that point of view. It was a situation where [Caceres] had done it, [Dean] gave him a hard warning, the low blow wasn't just an accident -- it was gross negligence, to use a legal term. Sometimes accidental fouls happen, but he thought the fighter was being very negligent or very sloppy, so he gave him a very hard warning and then very soon afterward he did it again. This was a straight-on kick where the fighter had a lot of control over it, he kicked him very hard, the guy was very hurt, you could hear the kick, you could see his reaction when he landed the kick so you could see he was really hurt. The kick was one he could very easily control and the fighter didn't seem to care."
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"If you want to take two points away you can as a ref, you have that discretion. It's very rarely used -- I think it was only Herb's second time ever," Kizer said.
Kizer discusses more of his interaction with referees in the piece, which is quite interesting. You can check it out here.
SBN coverage of UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit