Yves Lavigne regrets his mistake during Sell-Brown fight at UFC 96
It seems that UFC 96 was marred by mistakes made by the officials during the undercard. Aaron Riley feels his fight was stopped too soon after he was knocked down by Shane Nelson. Dana White recently said that he sent Pete Sell to the hospital after his fight with Matt Brown. ATO caught with Yves Lavigne and got his thoughts on the events that took place at UFC 96.
At the start of the fight featuring Matt Brown and Pete Sell Sell was rocked by a barrage of punches from Brown and fell to the ground. Referee Yves Lavigne stepped in momentarily then restarted the fight. “I screwed up. There’s not much to say. I screwed up the fight. I made a rookie mistake at the beginning and stopped it way too soon. I kind of restarted the fight. It wasn’t over at that point and I made the decision to look like a fool and say ok, keep going. I may have deprived Mr. Brown of an early victory but we’ll never know because of me.”
“I feel really bad. Fighters deserve the best. Instead of talking about Mr. Browns great win people are talking about a ref. Mr. Brown won with athleticism and tools he has and I’m taking the spotlight away because of my mistake. I feel really bad about it. He deserves better. He worked hard for that win.”
Lavigne insists that the stoppage in the earlier fight between Riley and Nelson had nothing to do with his actions, “No, not at all, it was not me in that fight. It’s my fault.”
After the fight Lavigne went to the back and checked on Sell, “Mr. Sell was ok, according to him and said I should’ve let it go.” Lavigne says. “I went to talk to him to see if he was ok. I do that on a regular basis after the fight. Sometimes with the adrenaline they tell the doctor they are ok but sometime later they are not. He really was ok.”
When asked if he talked to Dana White after the fight Lavigne responded, “I don’t talk to Dana White. The longest conversation I have ever had with him is hello and goodbye. I don’t work for him. I work for the Athletic Commission. My boss is Mr. Bernie Profato from Ohio. After that fight we had a quick debriefing next to the cage. He asked me a bunch of questions and I answered all of them. He asked me if I was good to go for the main event and I said, Yes Sir. He has the power to remove me but he didn’t. He could have put in Big Dan. We talked after the event and everything seemed fine.”
In another fight Lavigne had to step in after Mike Patt received some vicious leg kicks from Brandon Vera and couldn’t continue, “He probably is having problems walking today. You could hear the kicks. I bet it hurt like hell. I asked him twice if he wanted to continue. He didn’t really answer but he blinked with his eyes so I let it continue. He received one more kick and he went down. I gave him the opportunity to get up and he didn’t so I stepped in. At one point I figured he didn’t want to quit I understand I’ll make the decision for you. That’s what I should’ve done in the Pete Sell fight.”
To read an interview ATO conducted with Yves. Lavigne in January please click here
March 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Kudos to Yves, for stepping up like a man and taking charge for his mistake. We all make them. He’s a stand-up guy, and one of the better refs out there. And plus, his instructions to the fighters during the stare-downs are always enjoyable. Much respect.
March 9th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I like Yves Lavigne. He’s straight-forward and is usually a good ref. This little peccadillo will just make him better.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Yes, ref is the hardest job in the entire ufc. too soon people complain, too fast people complain, just right people don’t even say thanks…..
worst job ever.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:56 am
it takes a bigger man to admit when he made a mistake. your a class act yve.
March 10th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Props to Yves - he’s a standup guy, honest and humble. Not to mention a great ref. So he’s human and messed up - it happens. He shouldn’t be punished for it for the rest of his life.
I think how he said “I feel really bad. Fighters deserve the best. Instead of talking about Mr. Browns great win people are talking about a ref…” he was right on. The mma community needs to move on and start talking about Matt Brown’s incredible skills and determination.
Thanks for this article and showing us Yves’ side - nice to hear!
March 10th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I still think Lavigne is one of the best MMA refs, I think he got caught up in the earlier fight (Riley stoppage) and questioned his own judgement which was his mistake.
I’ve seen him make a lot of other good calls that really changed the outcome of the fight for the better.
Nog vs Herring @ 73
Davis vs Taylor @ 75
Reffing has to be a terribly difficult job. If you do it well no one even knows you’re there. If you make a mistake everyone knows your name.
March 10th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
This was a bit of a bizarre twist in the beginning of the fight but overall it wasn’t a huge deal. Yves is definitely one of the best refs out there and I’ve seen way worse calls. Nice to know he isn’t making excuses, takes balls.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Pete Sell always seems to be involved in these fights where the reffing gets f’d up. In his 2nd fight with Nate Quarry it was almost the same thing. Quarry knocked him down with a hard right and Mario Yamasaski started to step in, actually bumping into Quarry in the process, but then let it go. Quarry landed another huge right hand while standing over Sell and then it was finally stopped.
As far as Lavigne, I can’t remember him making any other big goofs and for the most part he seems like a good ref. Of course we all make mistakes and he’s man enough to own up to this one.