Mailbag: Are MMA referees showing noticeable signs of improvement lately?

Are MMA referees (gasp!) actually doing a better job lately? And what are the realistic options for Aljamain Sterling as he heads into a UFC main event at the Apex this Saturday? Also, what does the future hold for Mike Malott?

All that and more in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @BenFowlkesMMA on X or @Ben_Fowlkes on Threads.

OK look, I was as fatalistic as anybody when it comes to the work of refs and judges in MMA. It seemed like we saw the same problems and screw-ups over and over again, with zero signs of improvement or accountability.

Then I went to the Combat Sports Officials Summit in January and what I came away with was a sense that, regardless of how it might look from the outside at times, these people are really, really trying. They’re talking about the same issues we are. They’re debating the same potential solutions. They’re reviewing the failures — their own and other people’s — and trying to learn from them. They’re doing the best they can.

They’re never going to be perfect, but I do think there’s been steady improvement, even if it doesn’t always look like it. The thing we have to realize, though, is that this is an incredibly difficult sport to officiate. There are so many weird things that can happen. No matter how many weird things you think you’ve already seen during your MMA fandom, there’s still more out there waiting to be discovered. These people have to make snap judgments on wild, tricky situations.

And just by the nature of this sport, any call they make is likely to change the entire fight, if not end it completely. It’s basically a close play at home plate in the bottom of the ninth every single time. Not saying we shouldn’t expect them to be good at their jobs. People’s careers and health are on the line, after all. But they know all that, and they really are trying to get it right.

I’ll answer the second part first, since it’s the easiest: No, I’m afraid he does not. He’s 36, with a body that’s been through the meat grinder. He’s also in a division that’s historically unkind to middle-aged fighters. Even if he could overcome those factors and string some quality wins together (he’s been doing the old win-one-lose-one routine since 2023), there’s the added obstacle of the UFC itself.

I don’t think I’m telling anyone anything they don’t already know when I say the UFC bosses don’t love this man. They didn’t love it when he was champ. They pressured him into defending the belt before he was healthy and ready. They’ve shunted him to the side ever since and are now trying to use him as a catapult for younger fighters. He’d have to really earn it in order to get a title shot at featherweight right now. And sadly, I just don’t think he has that much time left on the clock.

You’re absolutely right about that. And I think in a way, the UFC learned a lesson from that whole situation. The lesson was that you shouldn’t make fights just so you can make other fights down the road. This sport is too unpredictable for that.

For those unfamiliar, the UFC brass picked up Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic after the purchase of PRIDE FC and wanted him to fight Randy Couture for the heavyweight title. But they seemed worried that perhaps “Cro Cop” wasn’t well-known enough to North American fans. So they threw him in there with Gabriel Gonzaga first, thinking he’d head kick his way to glory and set up a big pay-per-view showdown with Couture. Instead it went the exact opposite direction.

The moral of the story? When you have a big fight in the crosshairs, go ahead and make it now. Don’t wait for later, because sometimes later never comes.

Skill-wise, I think Mike Malott has the potential to be a top-five welterweight. But in order to be a champ, I think he’d need Khamzat Chimaev to get bored and go looking for challenges in another weight class first. But he’s not alone. That’s probably the reality for everyone in the 170-pound division right now.

The big thing working against him is that he’ll almost certainly be drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders. I can’t think of a worse jinx to put on a player than that.

I’m on record as saying that this trivia game format is flawed. It is biased against people who’ve had their brain melted into warm goo by watching thousands upon thousands of fights over the course of two solid decades. My memory does not know the difference between stuff that happened in the UFC in 2012 and stuff that happened in 2018. In my mind, it’s all filed under “a few years ago.”

All of which is to say, nah, I think I’m done. Though rest assured that if I had beaten Petesy Carroll, I’d be just as certain that this game is the only IQ test that matters.