It was a difficult night for a UFC referee at the Apex on Tuesday night.
Episode four of this season of Dana White’s Contender Series saw four fighters earn UFC contracts in another strong episode.
There were impressive performances, highlight reel finishes and a back-and-forth battle to continue the season’s current hot streak.
Dana White even went against one of his main rules when signing 36-year-old Mandel Nallo following his spectacular win over Samuel Silva.
However, the displays that the contestants put on were not the only talking points from Tuesday night due to some controversial actions from a referee.
Gary Copeland earns Mario Yamasaki comparisons following a pair of controversial calls at the UFC Apex
This week’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series was a night that referee Gary Copeland will want to forget.
The official was assigned to two fights on the card, both of which producing controversial moments due to his actions.
Copeland was scolded on social media for not penalizing Eduardo Chapolin for landing a clearly illegal knee against An Tuan Ho, choosing to caution him between rounds instead.
This ended up being a minor issue compared to his call in the fight between Cezary Oleksiejczuk and Theo Haig which had one of the strangest endings to a fight in some time.
Fans reacted to Copeland stopping the fight to check the video review after believing that Oleksiejczuk was landing illegal strikes to the back of the head, only to then determine that they were legal, awarding the Polish fighter the win.
‘God Gary sucks. Awful ref.’
‘Just get Herzog to ref the whole show at this point.’
‘Say goodbye to your job Gary, that was bad.’
‘The worst ref of all time.’
While some fans argued that the shots did appear to land to the back of the head, others compared Copeland to notorious referee Mario Yamasaki, who Dana White publicly slammed following a huge error.
‘He said f— Yamasaki and did what he did.’
‘He’s worse than Mario Yamasaki, I don’t care.’
Gary Copeland’s call didn’t end up hurting Cezary Oleksiejczuk
When announcing the contract winners at the end of the episode, Dana White addressed the bizarre ending to Cezary Oleksiejczuk’s win.
The UFC boss stated that the stoppage wasn’t his fault and that it didn’t take away from his quick win inside the Octagon.
“Not your fault that it was a weird ending to the fight. You came in and did what you did. You absolutely dominated. 21 unanswered hammer fists, and sitting cage side, it sounded like literally a hammer on wood. You were hammering the s— out of that guy. Come on over here, I’m gonna give you a shot.”
As a result, Oleksiejczuk will now join his older brother Michal, a UFC veteran of 16 fights, on the roster.