A recent mixed martial arts event in Hot Springs, Arkansas, saw a rare altercation between a referee and a fighter.
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“I didn’t mean to grab the cage,” Gidron told MMAJunkie. “You can see in the video: When I went to grab the cage, as soon as I grabbed the cage and stood up, as he’s running toward me, I’m throwing my hands up. That tells you I already did wrong. I messed up. Most refs when they grab you, they say, ‘Stop, stop, stop.’
“He ran and put his forearm in my throat. Me, I’m already in fight
mode. What I did, I’m not saying I was wrong, and I’m not saying I
was right, but I pushed him off me. He’s a big guy. All his weight
was on my throat. … I felt that I pushed [him] off me. Maybe I
could’ve done a lot better, but I didn’t feel like I did anything
wrong. I’m not choking him. I’m removing him the best way I
can.”
Munz, who has been a regular in Arkansas MMA circles in different capacities, also allegedly let Caleb McCauley absorb several unanswered strikes from Phillip Roberts in another bout on the same card. While the Arkansas State Athletic Commission is yet to come to a final decision, Munz’s license has temporarily been suspended and could be extended to a lifetime ban.
Meanwhile, Gidron was initially disqualified and then called back to continue the fight with a different referee, jumping straight into Round 3, and skipping the incomplete second round. Gidron went on to drop a decision, which he has since appealed to be overturned to a no-contest to the ASAC.
“They disqualified me. After that, it just went crazy,” said Gidron. “They went in there. I don’t know if they thought I was going to go at him or what that was. Any fighter that goes through that, it just throws you off. It throws you completely off your game plan. It throws you completely off everything.
“They took both of the tapes off my gloves. I’m already knowing I messed up. Next thing, they’re like, ‘No, the fight is going to happen.’ A couple minutes later, they said the fight was going to happen. So they had to come in, re-tape me up, and I’m like, ‘I don’t understand.’
“They didn’t even have us finish that round out. They just jumped right to the third round.”
As per local outlet KATV, Munz is required to take anger management and referee refresher courses in order to reapply for his license. Gidron accepts part of the blame for what went down and doesn’t want Munz to lose his job.
“I don’t believe no one should lose their job. At the end of the day, we’re all in this for the fun. If you’re not having fun with this, you’re in the wrong sport. I don’t feel like no one should lose their job. I don’t want no one to lose their job. I don’t know if you’ve seen recently, but we’ve seen a lot of these refs not being held accountable for their mistakes. I think a suspension or something like that [would be appropriate], but I don’t want to see nobody lose their job, man. At the end of the day, he might just need to go through training. He might need to go through something to help him better do his job. But I don’t think no one should lose their job… I don’t wish no bad on nobody. At the end of the day, it was just the heat of the moment. We’re just two grown men. It was the heat of the moment and got out of control. We’re men. We shake hands and go on with our lives. I say we both made mistakes. I’m not just pointing fingers on him or fingers at me. We both made a mistake, but he shouldn’t lose his job, though.”
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