The questionable stoppage by Mario Yamasaki in the Michael Chiesa vs Kevin Lee fight has garnered some impressive attention for a Fight Night bout. The end of that fight came with 23 seconds left in the first round when Lee had Chiesa in a rear naked choke despite not being asleep or tapping, Mario stopped it. UFC Fight Night 112 is in the books and despite his best efforts Chiesa’s appeal to the Oklahoma commission was denied. Michael has decided to step up the heat on Yamasaki with an out of nowhere and kind of ridiculous challenge while on The MMA Hour.
It’s the past, I am moving forward and Onnit is having an invitational on September 30th and this is my open challenge to Mr. Yamasaki. I would like to test his fifth degree black belt in a friendly grappling match. Let’s see if he is what he says what he is. I am not saying that in a hostile way, I’m just saying that, hey, if you are a fifth degree black belt, back up the decisions that you made. As a martial artist myself, that is my open challenge to you to headline the Onnit Invitational on September 30th.
We all know Dana White’s take on Mario and that many fighters cringe when they see his name on the card for their bout. That is no secret and there are some legendary rants out there by fighters who have been on the receiving ends of his bad calls. He’s doing the best that he can and that is all that we can ask, especially since the number of us that have refereed a high level fight is almost zero. Still, Michael doesn’t have the same understanding we do.
To be honest, the second Mario Yamasaki came to the locker room, me, Sam and my coach all looked at each other like, ‘Oh fuck.’ I’m not trying to sit here and bash the guy, but you know he has a track record for not the best officiating.
Mario is also no slouch in BJJ so he’s not getting steamrolled by anyone most likely. Chiesa doesn’t care.
I know he’s a fifth degree black belt, and that’s all fine and dandy, but that doesn’t mean he’s a fifth degree black belt in officiating. I feel like he’s fallen behind a little bit and I think that is pretty sad that a ref walks into your room, you and your team are looking at each other like, ‘Oh shit we have this guy.’ I like the work of Herb Dean, Big John, Dan Miragliotta and I think the best ref we had was Josh Rosenthal and it’s unfortunate we can’t have him. It just kind of sucks when an official walks in and your like, ‘crap’.
This will never happen, but the possibility of fighters getting screwed and getting their hands on refs afterwards is a bad idea.