MMA-domaren Dan Miragliotta har varit i ropet sedan helgens match mellan Michael “Venom” Page och Richard Kiely, som ägde rum under Bellator Dublin. I en intervju med ’MMA FIghting’ berättar Miragliotta nu om matchen samt efterspelet.
Hårda ord mellan de båda
Kimura har tidigare uppmärksammat ”MVP”s syn på hur matchen och kommunikationen med Miragliotta utspelade sig. Bland annat berättade engelsmannen att domaren knuffade honom och kallade Bellator-stjärnan för ”piece of shit”. Miragliotta förnekar inte dessa uppgifter under sitt samtal med ’MMA Fighting’
I’m not going to say I didn’t say it, but I was wrong for saying it. I shouldn’t have gotten that angry, but I did. I screwed up.
På grund av händelsen lovar domaren att han aldrig kommer döma en match med engelsmannen igen.
I’ll never do his fights again, because I can never really look at him and not have that animosity toward him, because I’m not going to let somebody tell me to f*ck off, and there’s nothing I can do, and I’m an official. It’s not good for me or the sport.
Miragliotta blev, enligt egen utsago, provocerad av att MVP efter matchens slut svarade på ett av domarnas tilltal med orden ”F*ck off”.
I was pissed, bro. “I’m 56 years old. I’m a grown man. I’m older than him. I show respect to everybody. When someone says f*ck off like that to me with disrespect, I lost it. I never should have said what I said. And I know I was wrong. Under my breath, I turned, and one of his coaches was right next to me, and I said, ‘What a f*cking piece of s*it. I knew I was wrong, and especially with it being his coach right there, and he said, ‘What did you say?’ And I said, ‘Man, I apologize. I never should have said that.
Har anklagats för rasism
Redan under matchens gång markerade Miragliotta mot engelsmannen, genom att dra av en poäng under den första ronden. Anledningen bakom detta var osportsligt beteende.
It was a bad matchup, and he was dominating the kid. He didn’t have to do what he was doing. At one point, and you can watch the video and probably read his lips, he’s hitting him, then he stops and calls him a f*cking b*tch, he hits him again, ‘f*cking b*tch,’ did it a third time. He was taunting the kid. So I was like, I warned him, I’m calling time.
Sedan helgen har Miragliotta, enligt egen utsago, fått över 200 meddelanden angående hans agerande under galan i Dublin. Majoriteten av personerna som skrivit har stöttat hans agerande medan andra har anklagat honom för rasistiska motiv gentemot ”MVP”.
I did what I did because of what he did, not because of his color or religion
