Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Kizer defends himself against Rogan, fans and media

No one said Marc Ratner's job was easy, but you wonder if Keith Kizer expected to be at the center of the storm so often.

Ratner, the UFC's VP of regulatory affairs, left his post with the Nevada State Athletic Commission in 2006. Kizer slid into the spot.

At the time, MMA was still in its infant stages and boxing required most of his attention. A rabid fanbase spurred on by good matchmaking, increased exposure and excellent marketing has made MMA into the NSAC's primary responsibility.

Ratner was well-regarded and rarely got smashed by the boxing media and fans, but it's a whole new game with MMA. The heat got turned up a notch last weekend when UFC analyst Joe Rogan went ballistic about a bad decision in the Nam Phan-Leonard Garcia fight.  

Kizer spoke with several media sources on Monday about Rogan's critique. From USA Today:

"You get people who love to overreact," Kizer told the MMAFA.tv site. "Obviously there are people who want to feel superior than others, trash others. Maybe they are full of some self-hate, some self-pity; maybe that's Rogan's piece as well. ... There are ways to criticize professionally, ethically, effectively and legitimately. But then there are ways where you are just trying to make yourself look better."

Kizer said he's not interested in going back and forth with the comedian-turned-sports analyst.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"He's got the right to say what he believes, and that's fine, but when someone starts calling people names, I'm not going to respond to it directly," said Kizer, who said he has received about 600 e-mails about the decision. "It's not worth my time and it's probably not worth his time, either."

Kizer did say he was "shocked" by the Phan-Garcia decision, but understood the rationale of the judges, Adalaide Byrd and Tony Weeks, who scored the fight in favor of Garcia.

USA Today pointed out that the UFC itself hasn't had an issue in the past with the majority of judges working for the NSAC.

UFC has taken 90% of Nevada-appointed officials to non-U.S. shows, Kizer said, adding that one of the judges who scored Saturday's bout in Garcia's favor, Tony Weeks, has been chosen by UFC to score fights for next Saturday's UFC 124 card in Montreal. Others who have worked overseas shows before include the oft-maligned Cecil Peoples.

The level-headed Ratner said the judging is a work-in-progress. From the Review-Journal:

"It's still a brand new sport. You're really only talking about the last 10 years," Ratner said. "You're going to have some controversies, but we can't be ostriches, either. We, as a sport, need to keep improving."

Ratner appoints the judges when the promotion hit places like Germany, Australia, Abu Dhabi and the U.K. 

Thanks to @adamhilllvrj from the Las Vegas Review-Journal

Tom Howard

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