The California State Athletic Commission recently added a new rule for officials following a controversy involving judge Doug Crosby.
On Friday, Andy Foster, the CSAC’s executive officer, released a memorandum that bans out-of-state travel for combat sports officials. With this new rule, judges and referees cannot move beyond Nevada if they intend to work an event in California within one day of an assignment. mma fighting Ariel Helwani The news was given first.
MMA Junkie obtained the full memo, which includes an update on out-of-state assignments for CSAC officials, which can be read below:
Whereas the commission understands that as an officer you can work in other states also. It is imperative that you do your best for those assignments and take into account the travel distance between locations when consistently accepting assignments. If you work in California on Friday, the commission considers it acceptable for you to work in Nevada on Saturday or vice versa. If you accept an out-of-state assignment within one day of an assignment in California, you may be removed from the California assignment if you need to travel beyond the state of Nevada.
The change comes days after Crosby’s controversial scorecards from consecutive events held on opposite sides of the country.
Crosby submitted a highly criticized 50-45 scorecard in favor of Danny Sabatello over Roughon Stotts in the co-main event of Bellator 289 on December 9 in Uncasville, Conn. Stotts won the fight with scores on the other two judges’ scorecards. 48-47.
The Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulations has since announced that it intends to review the fight with all three judges. Commission director Mike Mazzulli acknowledged that it was wrong for Sabatello to score every round, and that there was a “learning moment” for the officials.
The next night, Crosby flew across the country to Las Vegas to work UFC 282 on December 10, where he presented another controversial scorecard. In the co-main event against Jared Gordon, Crosby drew the first and second rounds in favor of Paddy Pimblett. Pimblett won the fight unanimously, but many disagreed with the decision, especially the scoring in the early rounds.
