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UFC CEO Dana White Bothered By 'Atrocious' UFC 307 Judging, Refereeing

Dana White was not pleased with various aspects during UFC 307 Saturday night.

Zain Bando

UFC CEO Dana White takes questions from the media during a press conference.
UFC CEO Dana White takes questions from the media during a press conference. / (via Icon Sportswire)

UFC CEO Dana White was in a less-than-stellar mood following UFC 307 Saturday night in Salt Lake City, Utah.

White was unimpressed outside of Alex Pereira's fourth-round TKO stoppage victory against Khalil Rountree in the main event. Two glaring concerns pointed to the judging and officiating mishaps surrounding several fights, including Julianna Peña's title-clinching split decision against Raquel Pennington in the co-main event.

White kept his sediments brief, making a direct comparison to his experience in Dublin, Ireland, last month when promoting Callum Walsh's boxing match on UFC Fight Pass.

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"I thought judging tonight was atrocious," White said. "I felt like I was at boxing match in Ireland tonight.

White was hesitant to answer any other questions about the subject but eventually caved in when asked about the stalemate nature of a bantamweight fight between Jose Aldo vs. Mario Bautista, the featured bout during the pay-per-view portion.

"I always think the referee should be more active on that," White said regarding Bautista's strategy to shoot for takedowns but remain stagnant. "100 percent, especially when somebody keeps doing it to stall. You guys aren't gonna f******* let up on this, are you? I guess we'll get into it – If you're judging on a guy, whether it is control, if it's this or that. If you're not trying to fight, how do you win the fight, right? And, if you're looking at attempted takedowns, what about stuffing the takedowns? It's just madness."

The victory for Bautista was his seventh straight win in the bantamweight division. Meanwhile, Aldo dropped to 1-1 since returning to the UFC last spring. Aldo is a former UFC featherweight champion while Bautista improved to 9-2 since signing with the promotion in 2019.

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Bautista's last blemish came in March 2021 to Trevin Jones, who is no longer in the UFC after a 1-4 stint was capped off last March.

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Zain Bando
ZAIN BANDO

Zain Bando is a writer for MMA Knockout, part of the Sports Illustrated/Minute Media umbrella. He has covered combat sports since 2019 for notable outlets BJPenn.com and FanSided MMA. He also co-hosts a podcast called "The MMA Outsiders," part of the Empty The Bench Podcast Network, which airs Tuesday nights at 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT. A Chicago suburban native, Bando has been enthralled with MMA since 2006 and has been fortunate to attend some of the most high-profile events in the sport's history, both as a fan and media member, including UFC 264, Bellator 297 and Kayla Harrison's PFL MMA debut. He is excited to take the next step in his combat sports writing journey and looks forward to continuing his following of the fight game for years to come. Bando can be reached via email at zainbando99@gmail.com or by social media @zainbando99

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