• UFC 142

Miragliotta rubbishes UFC influence over Belfort win

Vitor Belfort beat Anthony Johnson at UFC 142 © Getty Images

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Dan Miragliotta has issued a fierce rebuttal to the suggestion that he was influenced by the UFC to aid Vitor Belfort's victory over Anthony Johnson at UFC 142.

Miragliotta was the official for Saturday's co-main event, won by Belfort via rear naked choke. He came under fire for a series of restarts, which were felt by some observers to have been too hasty.

Johnson was restarted on three occasions during the one-round contest, the last of which saw Miragliotta stand the pair up even though Johnson appeared to be trying to free his hand in order to land a punch.

It has since been cynically suggested that Johnson's weight-cut failure, which later led to his axing from the UFC, may have prompted UFC officials to encourage Miragliotta to keep the fight standing as much as possible - where Belfort was believed to have the best chance of victory. Ironically his eventual win came on the mat.

"If there's two guys on the ground that aren't doing anything or if they're in a takedown position and they're just very tired so they're leaning against each other and they're not going for a single-leg or they're not trying something different to change their position, I give them some time," Miragliotta told MMAjunkie.com. "I warn them, and then I'll separate them.

"[Johnson] established position and then just held his wrist and laid on top of him. He had that one real nice, heavy punch that kind of busted up Vitor's face in the very early beginning of the first round, and then after that his takedowns had just kind of stopped.

"The UFC never talks to us," Miragliotta said. "You go out there, and Marc Ratner is the one that's responsible for us. We never talk to Dana or Zuffa or any of the other guys. I may have talked to Dana once or twice since I've been doing this. They don't bother us.

"Never, ever have you ever heard the UFC grab an official and say to them, 'Let's change the criteria,' or, 'Let's do something different because we need to keep the fans happy.

"Neither corner came up to me and said anything negative. I rode with Anthony Johnson's corner in the bus on the way to the airport, and he thanked me for giving his guy a chance to fight. He never said, 'I wish you would have let them stay on the ground a little longer,' or, 'I wish you would have stood them up faster.'"

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