Veteran UFC Ref Mario Yamasaki Wants To See More Regulation In Brazil

  • Welcome to "The New" Wrestling Smarks Forum!

    I see that you are not currently registered on our forum. It only takes a second, and you can even login with your Facebook! If you would like to register now, pease click here: Register

    Once registered please introduce yourself in our introduction thread which can be found here: Introduction Board


No More Sorrow

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2011
Messages
8,942
Reaction score
41
Points
48
Age
33
Location
Connecticut
Mario Yamasaki will be a third man in the cage when the UFC takes its third trip to Brazil for UFC 142, which takes place Jan. 14 at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.

Working within a well-oiled machine is by now something he's used to, but the longtime referee wants to help the country build a stronger regulatory framework as the sport gets bigger.

"Brazil is no man's land," Yamasaki recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (MMAjunkie.com Radio | MMAjunkie.com). "Anybody can do anything, and I'm trying to make it the same as the Unified Rules (of MMA) for the whole country."

Yamasaki's roots prepared him well for his current job. A native of Sao Paulo, his father was one of two international referees qualified to oversee Olympic matches in judo, which he and his brother studied from a young age.

"We used to fake a fight to train the referees," he said. "So we learned the mechanics. In judo, you have to be right there in the moment. You can't wait a couple of seconds to decide. It's the same thing as MMA."

Now a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Yamasaki has refereed in the UFC since 1999 and has overseen countless high-profile fights within the promotion, including this past Friday's UFC 141 headliner between former heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem. That puts him in demand for international events, and his importing business often takes him back to native soil.

Unfortunately, Yamasaki is often dismayed at what he sees backstage: glove weighting, foreign substances rubbed on bodies, and all manner of rule-bending that would be illegal if Brazil had a commission.

"I go to a lot of events where they don't even have doctors or inspectors," he said.

The problem spreads to judging, as well. This past September, Yamasaki oversaw the retirement bout of Royler Gracie, which took place in Manaus, Brazil, at Amazon Forest Combat 1.

"Royler lost the three rounds, and one of the judges gave it to Royler," Yamasaki said. "After the fight, I said, 'What are you thinking? Why did you give it to Royler?' (He said,) 'Oh, it's his last fight. He did so much for jiu-jitsu.' I said, 'C'mon, man.'

Yamasaki, who now resides in Pennsylvania, said he hopes to help in setting up a proper athletic commission to oversee events in Brazil, though he won't take a position within it. In February, he's importing his referee training course to the country.

"I'm helping them start a commission and just doing my MMA courses," he said. "If somebody dies or gets hurt in Brazil, it's going to be bad for the name of the sport and for Brazil. I'm trying to make it so everybody's the same, so everybody thinks the same."

That's just the attitude when he works a UFC event, after all, and the success of the promotion can partly be attributed to a handful of judges such as Yamasaki, Herb Dean and John McCarthy, even though they are rarely recognized for the bulk of their work.

"I don't choose sides; I'm always the same," Yamasaki said. "It doesn't matter if he's my brother, my cousin, if he's Brazilian or Japanese. I, and a lot of the other referees, like to be different than boxing. Because if we ref somebody, that's our profession. It doesn't matter if they're friends.

"In the fight, the best guy has to win. You have to give them a chance to do whatever they're going to do, and you have to be correct. We've got respect because we do that."

MMAJunkie.com