MMA ref trainer Daryl Guthmiller wants you to get in your corner.

When I heard that the Minnesota Combative Sports Commission was running an MMA officials training seminar, I knew I had to be there. Even the more educated MMA fans sometimes miss key details, and as media I think it’s important to strive for knowledge the way a fighter  hungers for refining a technique.  Luckily, the Commission was okay with media coverage at the four-hour seminar which took place on Saturday, April 3rd in Maple Grove.  I’ll break the event and key information down into three posts. In the first piece, I’ll cover MMA reffing. In the second, I’ll give you somewhat obscure information on MMA judging. In the final piece, I’ll list some thoughts and concerns that came up for me.

The referee seminar was conducted by Daryl Guthmiller and Brock Larson. Guthmiller, a former MMA fighter, said that the trademark of a good ref is that nobody remembers that they were there. The pay, it came out later, is also quite low. And the training is extensive; in addition to passing a test, prospective refs must work 50 official amateur bouts for free to advance beyond provisional status. Bouts are reviewed by the Commission and Commission-certified trainers and provisional refs must be able to explain all actions when their decisions are challenged. Furthermore, provisional refs can have their license revoked without explanation and with no right to appeal. So it looks like you need a fair bit of dedication to become a ref–even more so than a judge (who can score both pro and amateur bouts–nobody will let a provision ref work a pro fight.)

Although (from my own observation) not every ref always follows this to the letter, the code of conduct for officials prohibits drinking at afterparties or even expressing opinions of a bout, all to maintain a neutral appearance.  Refs are not supposed to officiate their own show, refs who are also fighters shouldn’t work within their own weight class and coaches/corners aren’t supposed to officiate potential future opponents of their fighters. Refs can also decide to get a second ref if they feel they have a conflict of interest–like if they’re related to or currently training with a fighter–but not for the reasons you might think. Rather than letting the fight go too long,  refs are likely to actually stop a fight too soon to protect their guy.

During the training I was most impressed by the level of detail and professionalism exhibited by the referee trainers and their high expectations both for attendees and for themselves when refereeing a bout. For example, Guthmiller described how he’d check the fighters’ gloves one last time before a bout, partially to condition them to his voice (amidst the noise) and to gauge their reaction to a verbal command. He’d make a mental note if they were slow to respond as that may play out just a few minutes later in the bout. He also explained in detail how to keep control of the cage–everything from interactions with fighters, language used to explain the rules and the way warnings are given should exude confidence, expertise, and, to borrow a made-up word from my past life as a middle school teacher, with-it-ness.

As a huge MMA fan, I was really excited about this training because I think it’ll help the sport–both by having more consistency between bouts but also by having better-educated refs who know what to say and how to say it. Although the safety of the fighters and enforcement of the rules are the primary duties of a referee, I feel that a well-informed ref  can really make for a better fight. Giving clear and detailed explanations of the rules, for example, helps keep fighters both informed and honest. Refs reminding fighters to tap visibly, if they listen, helps the audience understand what’s going on. Having a working knowledge of common ground strikes, submissions and variations (both by recognizing who is in control and recognizing a good solid choke vs. a lax one) prevents early stand-ups and stoppages and again, makes for a better fight.  And reminding fighters to protect themselves before a standup or stoppage can help bring them out of brain freeze mode and make the fight all that much more competitive. So even though it’s not the job of the referee to please the crowd or make for a better fight, I do think that’s the outcome. As a fan first and writer second, I was extremely pleased to see ALL of the above covered clearly and explicitly. And I was even happier to see many common techniques in standing, clinch and ground demonstrated for ALL attendees–prospective refs and judges.

A few other things that leaped out at me that I should probably know but didn’t:

• “A combatant shall not gain a tactical advantage from a foul.” We know it when we see it–like when Florian was elbowing Lauzon in the back of the head and the ref stood up the fight, taking away Lauzon’s takedown advantage. But there’s been fights where I wondered why a ref was ignoring a blatantly illegal act. Turns out that stopping the fight to give a penalty which would reward the offending combatant (by getting them out of the compromised position) is a bad idea. It makes sense–if the guy on the bottom is getting GNP’ed and commits a foul, why stop the fight to give a penalty when they foul?
• A combatant should never benefit from an illegal act–even if it’s accidental. And no warnings are required. So you can actually take a point away without a warning for an accidental foul. (I always assumed you had to give a warning first and that accidents wouldn’t result in point loss.) Of course, refs have a lot of discretion.
• Although deliberately striking the back of the head or spine is illegal and can result in disqualification, a fighter turning their head or back and getting hit in illegal targets… that’s their fault. It makes sense–turning into what would’ve been a legal punch not making it illegal–but just something I was unaware of.
• I didn’t realize that refs didn’t look at each round individually but look at the fight as a whole under many circumstances. For example, a ref may look for cumulative damage when trying to determine when to make a stoppage. And if two fighters stall on the ground a lot in round 1, the ref’ll be more likely to stand them up in the second round. (So it’s not always because the ref doesn’t understand what it looks like to try to set something up on the ground, even if it seems that way.)
• Reffing seems to be more of an art than a  science, especially when trying to determine when to, say, stop the action to get a fighter to put their mouthguard in, whether a foul is intentional or not, when to stand up a fight, etc. As with many activities, this seems to be something people either get the hang of and develop an intuitive sense for or not.

Hopefully that helps round out your MMA knowledge base a bit; we know that more informed fans get more enjoyment out of watching. In the next piece I’ll explain technical draws, technical decisions and what the books actually say abut how to score a round.