Dana White criticizes referee Chris Tognoni following controversial Jessica Rose-Clark fight

UFC president Dana White criticized referee Chris Tognoni following the controversial Jessica Rose-Clark fight at UFC Vegas 11.

Tognoni has been in charge of several controversial fights the last few months, including the recent light heavyweight bout between Mike Rodriguez and Ed Herman that saw Rodriguez robbed of a TKO win. A similar situation happened at UFC Vegas 11 during the women’s bantamweight bout between Rose-Clark and Sarah Alpar.

In the third round, Rose-Clark landed a knee that at first glance appeared to be illegal. The commission used instant replay to determine that it was in fact a legal knee, but instead of the win going to Rose-Clark by TKO, the fight was allowed to continue. Alpar took excessive damage following the re-start of the fight, which in itself was controversial, and White exploded on officials at the post-fight press conference.

“It’s a horrible situation. The fight should’ve been over. That fight should’ve been over just like last week. She got finished. She got stopped. If you have to jump in and look at her and do anything – her nose was broken. That was a finish. That should’ve been a finish,” White said (via MMAjunkie.com).

“I know Marc Ratner is all over this. It’s just something that needs to be worked out. When you get stopped, and these kids are so tough and durable. That poor little girl fought her ass off again after she was able to continue. This just needs to be fixed. They gotta figure this out.”

In the end, the right fighter won as Rose-Clark was able to finish the fight via third-round TKO. But Alpar took so much necessary damage in a fight that should have been stopped much sooner, and hopefully, this kind of situation never happens again.

Do you agree with Dana White that the athletic commissions need to figure things out?