Referee of the UFC Marc Goddard recently gave his take on whether MMA officials should be paid more.
In a recent interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, the MMA referee claimed that it is his love for the sport that has kept him going, not the money. He added that he didn’t get paid when he first started out.
Speaking about referee pay, Goddard said:
“The one thing I do want to stress is just how much we take this role seriously. Money is not the deciding factor and that’s another common thing that we share. Money is not the deciding factor for us, it’s not the motivator and it’s not the driver. I’ve been doing this. When I first started refereeing I wasn’t getting paid. That’s what tells you money is not the deciding factor.”
Marc Goddard added:
“It’s a passion, it’s something I love to do. And yes of course, I’m not going to sit here and lie. I don’t do things for free now because I’ve earned my stripes. But yeah, when it comes to the financial recompense of being an MMA official, yeah that’s up to the powers that be in the regulators. If you wanna up it, I’m all for it.”
Marc Goddard is one of the most well-known MMA officials in the world of mixed martial arts. The Englishman has overseen numerous title fights and most recently officiated the Jan Blachowicz vs. Glover Texeira, Weili Zhang vs. Rose Namajunas II and Julianna Peña vs. Amanda Nunes championship bouts.
John McCarthy defends Marc Goddard’s decision to stop Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington fight at UFC 245
Colby Covington has stated on many occasions that his loss to Kamaru Usman at UFC 245 was due to a premature stoppage by the referee officiating the bout, Marc Goddard. John McCarthy, an experienced MMA official, claimed Goddard did the right thing in protecting Covington from further harm.
In an episode of the Weighing In podcast, ‘Big John’ defended Goddard’s decision and said:
“You’re looking at him, you realize his jaw was broken and then he gets put down with a shot. And then he just turtles. And you’re telling him ‘move’, and he wasn’t moving. What’s that telling you? You got to look and say, ‘Hey, I’m giving you the opportunity to show me you want to stay in this.’ All you got to do is try to move. Doesn’t mean you have to get up. Doesn’t mean that you got to flop on your back. It means that you have to try to move the position to show me that you wanna stay in this fight. And when that doesn’t happen, it gets stopped. Don’t complain.”
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