Dana White upsets judges, one referee works UFC 307: 'It was horrible'

Dana White had a lot to celebrate at UFC 307, but don't expect him to applaud the judges or referees running the event.

There were more than a few controversial scorecards thrown in – perhaps none more important than Julianna Pena's split-decision win over Raquel Pennington in the co-main event – as well as a few gaffes from less experienced referees that marred some of the fights on the card. When it came specifically to the scoring at UFC 307, White didn't mention any fights by name, but was clearly unhappy with some of the results.

“I thought the scoring was horrible tonight,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “I felt like I was at a boxing match in Ireland tonight.

“I thought the judging tonight was horrible. I'll just leave it at that. It was horrible.”

White may also have been referring to the split decision victory Mario Bautista earned over Jose Aldo in another main event on Saturday, although he was definitely not happy with referee Mike Beltran.

His anger stemmed from Bautista constantly looking for takedowns, failing, but then pushing Aldo against the cage in the clinch. There was a special moment where Beltran actually separated the fighters, but right on the restart, Bautista dove for Aldo's legs again and put him right back in the same position on the fence.

“It’s common sense,” White said. “If the guy keeps going like that and doing everything he can to not fight and not win the fight, as a referee you should call it a day. If he's just done it three rounds in a row, and he keeps doing it, and they're getting there, and he can't get the takedown, give him a few seconds, see if he can get the takedown, and break it away.”

White would actually like to see referees be more involved in situations where he believes delaying tactics are used to avoid potential damage from an exchange.

The same goes for scoring fights, as White doesn't understand how someone like Bautista is rewarded by winning rounds but not doing any real damage.

“I always believe that referees should be more active in this regard. 100 percent,” White said. “Especially when someone keeps doing it to stall. You're not going to fucking let up, are you? I think we'll get into it. If you judge a guy, whether it's control, whether it's this or that, if you don't try to fight, then how do you win the fight? When it comes to attempted takedowns, what about stuffing takedowns? Simply madness.

“When you notice that the guy is definitely not going to stand still and throw punches and just wants to stand against the fence, yeah, the referees, that’s their job. If they see it happening all the time and the guy isn’t trying to win the fight, then you keep breaking them up.”

Although White advocates for referees to be more involved in shaping the action during a fight, he understands there are limits.

Perhaps the best example of this came earlier in the night during the preliminary round when referee Dave Seljestad broke up Cesar Almeida and Ihor Potieria shortly after they were pushed against the cage. The commentary team working the fights criticized the actions several times, as Seljestad treated the fight almost like a boxing match by repeatedly breaking Almeida and Potieria apart throughout the fight.

What made matters worse was that the referee failed to properly apply the rules after Potieria suffered multiple eye pokes, but a point was never deducted, nor was Almeida actually warned of repeated fouls.

Although White didn't see exactly what transpired, he later learned all about it from Marc Ratner, the UFC's vice president of regulatory affairs.

“I missed that [fight]said White. “I was in my room and we were talking to people, but [Marc] Ratner came in right after the incident and said, 'It won't happen again tonight.'”

Seljestad did not appear again at UFC 307, although the Almeida-Potieria fight was already scheduled to be his last fight as a referee on Saturday.