On a night where some terrible refereeing capped a weekend filled with unfortunate twists, it was an astute officiating call that led to a tremendous turnaround and an unforgettable finish to a very entertaining night of fights in the UFC’s Pittsburgh debut.
Heading into an unlikely main event featuring two not-so-ballyhooed heavyweights who were just fortunate to be co-headlining the free televised card before a withdrawal upped their status to headliner, the night had already seen some missed calls by referees on illegal blows, poor positioning and an insane insistence on standing up fights too early. So it’s somewhat ironic that when veteran referee Dan Miragliotta chose not to stop the punishment that Pat Barry was inflicting on Cheick Kongo, even when he appeared he might have briefly lost consciousness, it turned out to be the absolute correct decision, as moments later it was Kongo who was knocking Barry out cold en route to a double fight bonus and perhaps the most memorable knockout in the UFC in some time.
If there were one minor complaint, it was that Miragliotta didn’t recognize Barry was out quickly enough to jump in and stop Kongo from landing two or three more shots to the head of a motionless Barry. Earlier, Miragliotta was in perfect position throughout the Barry onslaught on Kongo, getting in close to carefully examine the action and be sure Kongo was still intelligently defending himself — or at least seemingly so by instinct — and not in any extra danger.
As it turned out, Kongo was alright and recovered enough from the initial rocking shots by Barry to turn the tables in what all of the Pittsburgh crowd will recall as one of the best “comebacks” you’ll ever see in a cage.
It’s a far cry from the work of the less-experienced Mark Matheny and Chip Snider earlier in the night. Snider missed a blatant illegal knee by Charles Oliveira to the head of a downed Nik Lentz, who was rocked by the foul and moments later was tapping out to a rear naked choke. The crowd recognized the error that led to Lentz’s downfall and booed even as the winning decision was announced. It was announced that the commission was to review the contest, which was deemed fight of the night, but the fans continued to let Snider know their displeasure, even when he returned to work a later bout.
It was an even tougher night for Matheny, who was constantly out of position during fights and barking instructions to fighters when he had no business doing so. Two most glaring examples were during the Matt Mitrione-Christian Morecraft fight. Mitrione had rocked Morecraft twice in the first round, with Matheny not in the best position to judge the latter’s defensive status. In the second round, Mitrione sent his opponent toppling with one final shot and casually walked away, while Matheny was too far back to intervene in time had he needed to save the fallen fighter any unnecessary punishment.
But worse than that was Matheny’s clear ignorance of the basics of submission grappling, when he forced the fight standing between Rick Story and underdog Charlie Brenneman on a number of occasions despite the fighters working for position and looking for submissions. (An earlier undercard bout between Joe Stevenson and Javier Vazquez also saw the referee stand the fight up too early.)
While the action on the ground may not have been frantic, it was strategic and to put an end to it so quickly was uncalled for. It particularly worked against Story in the third round, when he was in good position for a finish knowing he was likely down two rounds already.
Lately the biggest recurring problem in MMA has been that of inexperienced judges. But on this night there were no controversial decisions — which is almost amazing considering how seemingly cursed a weekend it has been for the UFC and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. When T.J. Grant had to pull out of his bout with the local native Brenneman, it was only a pre-cursor to the weird turn of events that would ensue.
Of course, the ongoing mystery novel that began on Saturday when it was announced just prior to the weigh-ins that original headliner Nate Marquardt failed his medical and was off the card took a twist when he was released by the UFC and another when we found out that he knew about the issue six weeks ago and was unable to resolve it in the commission’s eyes in time and is now indefinitely suspended.
UFC president Dana White said on the event’s pre-fight show just prior to the televised fights that he’s disgusted with Marquardt. He added he stands by the organization’s decision to cut him, that he better “man up” and explain why he failed his medical and that fans will then understand why the drastic step was taken.
We still don’t know exactly what the story is with Marquardt (he has promised to address it on Tuesday). But what we do know is that it turned out to be a dream situation for his replacement Brenneman — and actual “horror” for his opponent who goes by that nickname.
After not even being certain if he’d be fighting at all just 48 hours prior when his previous opponent was scratched Brenneman, now a heavy underdog against Story, took advantage of the opportunity to fight at home and against a top contender and didn’t waste it, acting like a linebacker for his hometown Steelers team and stifling his counterpart, who was fighting on less than a month’s turnaround after a hard-fought win over Thiago Alves at UFC 130 on May 28.
Meanwhile, Story went the way of past contenders unable to maintain the same intensity when his original opponent was swapped for a “lesser” one (another example that comes to mind is Josh Grispi dropping a decision to Dustin Poirier after his title shot was pushed off because of an injury to champion Jose Aldo.)
Many at the time were calling on the spirit of “Rocky” for Brenneman’s efforts (even though that fictional character is from the cross-state city of Philadelphia, not Pittsburgh, but I digress). Of course, that label more appropriately — and dramatically — goes to Kongo, who mustered enough courage and strength to survive a barrage and pull off a rally that we can say (without hyperbole) is of epic proportions.
And we must not forget, it came with a little help from a veteran referee.