Vyacheslav Kiselev at UFC 267
UFC referee Vyacheslav Kiselev officiated the prelims fight between Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 267
The UFC 267 prelims fight between Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and Benoit Saint-Denis was marred with controversy after referee Vyacheslav Kiselev had a horror night.
The second round of the fight saw dos Santos badly rock Saint-Denis multiple times.
In fact, Saint-Denis was nearly knocked out several times – any other referee or even a schoolboy with basic knowledge of the sport would have stopped the fight. But, Kiselev didn’t.
St. Denis looked battered, Kiselev just didn’t seem to be bothered.
Dos Santos had also accidentally eye-poked Saint-Denis. Although, St.Denis did complain, Kiselev brushed it off, and let the fight go ahead without going for any ringside physician check.
The commentators ringside, Daniel Cormier, Jon Anik and Paul Felder openly criticized the referee for his poor performance.
DC wasted no time, as he tweeted, calling it the worst refereeing performance he had ever seen.
Cormier wrote:
“Honestly the worst performance I have seen from a referee in my life. Honestly a hard job but man unreal. Makes you respect the good ones like @JasonHerzogMMA@JohnMcCarthyMMA@HerbDeanMMA and many more. I hated watching that I hope Benoit is heading to hospital right now !”
UFC middleweight Julian Marquez wasn’t one bit pleased with what he saw. ‘The Cuban Missile Crisis’ didn’t want to see Kiselev ever again.
Chiesa weighed in on the controversy as well:
Amy Kaplan, UFC fansided reporter, brought up Kiselev’s poor record as a professional MMA fighter.
It was later reported that, Kiselev was pulled from his other UFC 267 assignments following his atrocious performance.
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