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Speaker 1: The Volume. Daniel Cormier! Welcome to a brand new episode here at the Daniel Cormier Show brought to you by Total Wireless, the official mobile service provider of UFC. Real fans need unlimited 5G data that won't tap out. Real fans need real unlimited. Guys, oh boy. You know, because we are around this thing so much, you make relationships with people in the business from the promoters to the fighters, to the managers, to the athletes. Hell, I gotta be honest with you. Even the judges, I say hi to them. I don't have a relationship with them, but is we are around each other so much that you say how you wave, uh, To them, Adelaide Bird being one. That's surprising because I was kind of hard on her for a long time. But I think her being able to say hi to me, wave at me when she sees me, tells you that she recognizes that her doing her job is her doing her job. She don't care what people say about the job that she is doing. She's going to do her job in the way that she sees fit. Officials and referees are in that group of people that you build relationships over time with as you're in the business. Saturday night, and I'm telling you, we are quick to make assumptions. We are quick to pass judgment. We are quick to to say our say on so many things when it comes to fighting and the things around fighting. It's ours. It's the sport that we love. So we speak on it. Um, and what happens in front of you in moment at times will make you make claims that sometimes aren't necessarily what they should be. Uh, title fights, this guy's next, this guy's next, being one of those things. I will say, without a shadow of a doubt, with no second thought in my mind, I may have seen, right next to the octagon, one of the biggest refereeing errors I've ever seen in my entire life. What I saw on Saturday night was one of the biggest officiating errors I have ever seen in my entire life. And I'm not talking about in the moment. I'm talking with heated mind, ridiculous. I'm saying this a couple of days afterwards and sitting on it and thinking on it. I saw one of the biggest refereeing errors of my entire life on Saturday night. Now, I would like to say to you as you listen to this. I'm not sure that what Dan Mergliata did in changing that position, which, by the way, let me walk it to you if you have been living under a rock or if you are not paying attention. Renato Moicano is fighting Tom Nolan. The first round, Renato Moikano gets his back, takes a body triangle, controls the whole round. Nolan survives, to which we give him a ton of credit because that is Moikano's best position. There is a stat that Laura Sinko told me that everybody Moikano had attempted to submit in the UFC, he had actually submitted them going into that fight last weekend. Nolan got taken down very early. Nolan survived. Honestly, Moikano never got close to submitting Nolan from the back. Second round starts. Same thing. Tom Nolan starts. It's very evident, guys, that on the feet, Tom Nolan is the superior fighter. But when they get to the ground, while Moikano cannot submit him, he does have the ability to control him. control him effectively on his back with that body triangle while trying to chase submissions. Nolan's good. So finding that submission proves to be very difficult. Second round is playing out very much like the first. And it looks like we're going to go into round three with Moikano up 2-0 cruising. Now, here's where I would disagree with some people. I don't believe that the result of the fight would be any different. I believe Tom Nolan was going to win that fight. I believe Tom Nolan may have finished that fight. And I only say that because of one thing. I believe that Moikana was having to use so much energy to control him that I think it would have caught up to him. The takedowns would have been more difficult to get. It would have been a little bit harder to control him on the ground because you start to get a little bit more fatigued as you put all that effort into taking someone down and not necessarily hitting them. It was Marab and Piotr Jan. Marab, while he was winning those first couple rounds, was using so much effort, so much effort. then it was going to be hard for him to really sustain that, especially if he got hurt. And when he got hurt, Peorion took over. Same thing with Moikano. It was a matter of time until Tom Nolan did something that hurt him, and it would have made it feel like his gas tank was completely empty because he was maxing out his effort to get him to the ground and control him there. With that being said, second round is getting played just like the first. For some reason, I do not understand, probably about a minute, 45 seconds left in the round, Dan Mergliata stops the position. Dan Mergliata decides that he is going to intervene in the fight and stand them. Right away, I said, oh my God, this is crazy. Right away, I said, this is crazy. You cannot take somebody off of someone's back. I know there are rules. Luis could probably pull it up for me so I could read it to you verbatim. Luis, look at the rule in terms of a stand up on the ground for me if you could. I don't care what the rule is. What I care about is knowing that it's a dominant position. It is a dominant position. There are positions in fighting that you never change. One, mount. You never change that. I don't care if the bottom guy's holding him in tight and the top guy's just punching him on the side of the head. I don't care. Don't stand him. Two, you get somebody's back. You get a body triangle. You do not change the position. There are rules and then there are common sense places in fighting that you know if you are involved, you should stay out of the way. And then afterwards, Dan Helly and those guys, we're talking about that's why former fighters who fought, who fought, and are officiating the Frank Triggs, the Vito Ribeiro. They would never do that because they understand how difficult it is
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to get to that position. According to the unified rules, a referee shall stand up or separate combatants under specific conditions. One, lack of progress. Guys, There's progress. You get to the back. You're choking. Look, again, Tom Nolan's got the phone answered on this side. Lloyd Connell's trying to cross-face him. He's trying to dig. Every one of those actions to try to dig under the neck is him attempting to find a submission or fails to demonstrate a real significant and or sustained effort to finish the fight via strikes or submissions. Again, every time you dig, that is a submission. Superior position is not enough. Simply maintaining superior position such as topside control, half guard, or back mount does not guarantee an opportunity to keep that position. That is a rule. Honestly, that should be changed. That should be changed. Getting to a back mount is so hard, especially when you're doing it against the best fighters in the world. The best fighters in the world don't give you their back. They just don't. There was no stalling. He was not being timid. He was actually attempting to try and get to that position. Look, when Waldo Cortez Acosta got poked in the eye by Anthony Delia, Delia celebrates, goes crazy. They restart the fight. Cortez Acosta then knocks him out 20 seconds later. That was egregious. That was egregious. Last weekend was right up there with that. Because you cannot do that. You cannot change that position. You just can't. Now, Dominic Cruz and some of my colleagues have been very verbal about the lack of punishment, the lack of sanctions and seeing an official, when a mistake is made held accountable for that, right? They want to see that you cannot do something like that. And then everything is just goes back to next week. Dan Murgliana is a tremendous official, guys. I am not saying he is terrible. But when you make that type of mistake, Dominic Reyes was mad at me because he goes, this is our livelihood. Yeah, it's your livelihood. Yes, if you feel like the things I say affects your ability to earn, you can be upset. Could you imagine being an Atomoy Conner right now? That, what happened Saturday, is affecting your ability to earn. With that being said, something needs to happen. Something needs to happen. Because, guys, when we do stuff, right, if I go to my job or if I go to coach and I make a mistake as a coach and I just move to the next thing, nothing happens. There has to be some sort of punishment and there has to be some sort of reset. There's got to be a reset. Dan Mergliata has got to reset his mind. Actually, speaking of reset, I'm talking about the Factor Meals Reset, right? Let's reset with today's sponsor, Factor Meals. Go to factormeals.com slash DCSHOW50 to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last, 12-31-2026. Guys, reset. Two-minute meals, quick. Factor Foods always has you. As you're trying to live your life on the go, but also eat healthy and stay up to some of those goals. You may have set for yourself way back on January 1st, 2026. We talk about we don't get skinny. Some of us have. Others like us might not, but Factor Meals lets me have that ability to try and stay on track while not being tied up in the kitchen doing things forever. So again, when you're trying to get that reset, go to factormeals.com slash DCSHOW. 50 off and get 50 off of your stuff down at Factor. So guys, hit that reset with our good friends at Factor Mills. Let me tell you about this new sports trade app. It's called PolyMarket. It's the best way to trade all things sports. So in the past, if you wanted action on the game, you'd have to put some money in. And if your team was doing well and you wanted to cash out, they'd either lock the trade or they would take a huge fee. But PolyMarket is a prediction market essentially it's a stock exchange for sports you get to buy in and you get to sell on your own terms say your team goes down 20 well you buy in and then you sell it off at 40 when they come back and you double your money polymarket is simply the best prediction market. And they're so confident that they predict you'll never go back to the other guys and the old way. They're going to give you $ 50 free when you deposit just 10. Let me tell you something. That is confidence with the Polymarket team. So use my code DCMMA. They've even launched a new feature. It's called squads. where you can see what everybody else is doing at Polymarket. Download the Polymarket app today. Use my promo code DCMMA when you sign up. We'll give you $ 50 free when you deposit. Only $ 10 to start. Go now. Like right now. Dan Mergliato needs a reset. There's a show this weekend in the Apex. Dan Mergliato should not be there. There's a show in New York City where the heavyweight title will be on the line. Dan Merguliano should not be there. I believe that as we start to move forward in the sport, they are penalizing guys now. Four fouls, much quicker than they have. I saw it in Abu Dhabi. I saw it last week in bad fits. Grab, bam, right away, take a point. Eye poke, bam, take a point. Love that. I love how certain they are in their decisions in regards to things that affect The outcome of the fight or is perceived to be something that could affect the outcome of the fight. What Dan Mergulata did last weekend affected the outcome of the fight. And it wasn't just that the fight ended the way it did. Like I said, I believe that it was trending in that direction. But it's the visual where 30 seconds after, you see Moikano in a dominant position on the back. You see him getting beat up, almost finished to end the round. And then the start of the next round, he gets finished. It's Waldo Cortez Acosta getting poked in the eye. Antedilu celebrating with his friends. Everybody, wait, wait, wait, we got to fight again. 20 seconds later, the fight is over. It is so clear. That the mistake led to the change in the outcome that you have to have penalty.
Everybody else is held accountable, guys. We're all held accountable for our actions. Nobody should be above that. And officials included. And this is not me just shitting on Dan Murgaleata. This is not me just making, going at anyone. I don't want to do that. But you got to be held accountable for your actions. When they're bad and you also shouldn't be acknowledged for your actions when they are good. Look, some officials have had bad years. Some have had amazing years. Chris Tagnoli is a guy that at times could have struggled. I thought this year, Chris is doing a really good job. Jason Herzog is as good as they come. Herb Dean has struggled at times this year. It's okay. It's a hard job, as hard as any job in the sport. But again, you're the eyes, man. You are the person tasked with making sure everything is everything inside that octagon. Those two fighters are going to go in there and do the most dangerous job in the world. Your job is to make sure that they're, one, on a level playing field, two, that they're both safe, and two, they fight and abide by the rules. While Dan Mergliata abided by the rules of the law... The rules of knowing this game were not followed on Saturday night. So that's my thought. And again, I have so much respect for Dan Mergulia. I think he's a really good official. But he made a horrible mistake on Saturday night. So I'd like to see some sort of punish levied for that. Even if it's two weeks. Even if it's a month, I don't know, but there needs to be something. That's on the Nevada State Athletic Commission to go and get it done and figure it out and show that those things need to be punished. I said it right away to Laura. Everybody, we are all aligned and it feels like everybody just around the world of mixed martial arts, outside of just people that don't know what they're talking about, uh, uh, See it. Now, there are people that are in the know of this that might actually agree with this. And if you look at the letter of the law, yeah. But it's hard for me to sit here and agree with it. Now, did it make for a more fun finish? Yeah. And Tom Nolan should not lose any of our praise for that. It is not his fault. Tom Nolan did what he was supposed to do and he should be acknowledged and praised. Be held up. For that. But. It should never happen that way. It really should never happen that way. And I hope that officials see this. And I hope. That they go man. I don't want to involve myself in a fight. To where it directly affects. The outcome. Alright. Those are my thoughts guys. I mean. Let me know in the comments if you agree. Or you disagree. But I'm telling you. Shaolin. Shaolin. Frank Trigg, ask any of them. Go to their ex-accounts. Go to their Twitters and go to ask them if they would have done the same thing in that situation. I'm pretty sure universally you're going to get that they would not have. So until next time, guys, like, subscribe, tell your friend to tell their friend to DC God, the YouTube channel, doing things like this. Peace.