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Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal engaged in a surprisingly entertaining 10-round boxing match this past weekend as the former UFC foes sought to settle a longstanding rivalry in the ring.

Diaz ultimately earned a majority decision win in a back-and-forth fight that saw Masvidal actually connect with more power punches and overall punches but he still came up short on the scorecards. While the veteran fighters definitely endured a grueling battle, the good news is neither Diaz or Masvidal suffered any kind of significant injury during the bout.

On Monday, the California State Athletic Commission released the medical suspensions from the Diaz vs. Masvidal card to MMA Fighting with only a few lengthy layoffs handed down.

Based mostly on the fact that they just engaged in a 30-minute fight, Diaz and Masvidal were both handed mandatory six-day suspensions from the commission but face no other time off.

As for former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, who lost a decision to Chris Avila, he’s only looking at a four-day mandatory layoff. The same goes for Avila, who wrapped up his sixth straight win in the boxing ring after dispatching Pettis this past Saturday night.

Here are the full medical suspensions from the Diaz vs. Masvidal card:

Nate Diaz: 6 day mandatory suspension

Jorge Masvidal: 6 day mandatory suspension

Shane Mosley Jr.: 6 day mandatory suspension

Daniel Jacobs: 60 day suspension unless cleared by a physician for a laceration to his left eyelid. 6 day mandatory suspension

Anthony Pettis: 4 day mandatory suspension

Chris Avila: 4 day mandatory suspension

Curmel Moton: 4 day mandatory suspension

Nikolai Buzolin: 45 day suspension, 30 days no contact following a knockout loss. 4 day mandatory suspension

Sean Garcia: 45 day suspension, 30 days no contact following a knockout loss. 5 day mandatory suspension

Arnado Vargas: 5 day mandatory suspension

Devin Cushing: 5 day mandatory suspension

Manuel Correa: 5 day mandatory suspension

Dan Hernandez: 2 day mandatory suspension

Luciano Ramos: 2 day mandatory suspension

Luis Lopez: 5 day mandatory suspension

Alan Sanchez: 60 day suspension unless cleared by physician for laceration to left forehead. 5 day mandatory suspension

Steve Dunn: 45 day suspension, 30 days no contact following knockout loss. 2 day mandatory suspension

Gabriel Costa: 2 day mandatory suspension

Jose Aguayo: 45 day suspension, 30 days no contact following knockout loss. 2 day mandatory suspension

Andres Martinez: 45 day suspension, 30 days no contact following hard bout. 4 day mandatory suspension

Kenneth Lopez: 45 day suspension, 30 days no contact following hard bout. 4 day mandatory suspension

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Marc Goddard is staying out of the cage when it comes to the UFC welterweight champion.

During an appearance on Mike Perry’s Overdogs Podcast, the veteran referee was asked several questions about the ins and outs of officiating, including how much existing relationships with fighters complicate his profession. Goddard cited Leon Edwards as one specific example of a fighter whose bouts he will never oversee, for personal reasons.

“Leon Edwards,” Goddard said. “You’ve never saw me referee Leon Edwards in the UFC and you never will. Why? Because I was Leon Edwards’ first coach in MMA. Way, way, way back when, when he was just an amateur. But again, the common sense element for me, like I said, even though the link is so—Who knew then when Leon first walked into that gym as a raw amateur, a raw novice, with no experience. Now look at him. UFC welterweight champion of the world.

“But you’ve never saw me referee him and you never will because we’ll just keep it out of the way. I just don’t want any hassle and I don’t want to be put in a predicament where I’m making a call that could go against him, so it’s both ways.”

Goddard has been involved in MMA for over 20 years, but is most famous for being the third man in the cage for numerous high-profile fights in the UFC and other major promotions. He has also earned a reputation for his transparency when it comes to discussing his in-cage decisions.

One call that drew scrutiny from fans and criticism from the losing fighter was when Goddard waved off the bout in the fifth-round of Israel Adesanya’s first middleweight title clash with Alex Pereira at UFC 281 in November 2022. Adesanya appeared to be on his way to successfully defending his title on points, but a powerful flurry from Pereira prompted Goddard to step in for the save two minutes into the final frame.

When Adesanya and Pereira met in a rematch at UFC 287 five months later, Goddard made sure he wasn’t assigned. Adesanya went on to avenge his loss via a clean second-round knockout.

“I specifically requested not to do that fight,” Goddard said. “The reason I requested not to do the fight was because I was thinking about Izzy. I’ve reffed him since, I’ve referee’d his fight with Sean Strickland, but I actually removed myself because what I didn’t want to do was for Izzy to have me walking to the dressing room. I was thinking of a fighter then, this is his night, it’s all about him, and I didn’t want to walk into that dressing room and for him to have any form of negative connotation or something like that.

“So I decided it was sort of the right thing to do and the fairest thing to do by him was just stay out of the fight, give it to another ref, and I requested from the commission not to do it.”

For better or worse, Goddard is one of the more famous and most talked-about referees in the business, and he prides himself on always working to keep his mistakes to a minimum.

When it comes to any potential conflicts of interest, he’s sure to prioritize professionalism above all else.

“On a personal front, I have beef with no one,” Goddard said. “I’m an old head in this game. I’m 50 years old, I’ve been doing this a long time, it goes back to what we were saying before. Unfortunately, fighting is an emotional business and I understand that. Coming with emotional business is that at certain points things will not go a fighter’s way. Now that could be down to an official or an error of judgment, but obviously that’s the last thing on our minds. So from a personal point of view—Put it this way, when I retire from reffing and I write a book of memoirs, my best tweets are all the unsent ones. I’ll save them as drafts.

“Look, it comes from the heart what I do in this sport. I’ve grew up in it, I’ve competed, I’ve toured, I’m an active martial artist always first and foremost, and the last thing on Earth is for me to have any form or resilience or-nothing fills me with more dread if I’m assigned to work a certain event, sometimes common sense and experience tells you that if there as a past indiscretion with a fighter or something that they weren’t happy with, there’s always other refs there so I’ll just say, ‘I’m not going to do that fight.’ You can declare beforehand that there could be a clash of interest, stuff like that. It just comes down to the individual. Without being too long-winded about it, common sense and experience count for a lot, and I’m just there to look after these people. I love what I do immensely and yes, I don’t want any hassle.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Nate Diaz improved his professional boxing record to 1-1 on Saturday with a majority decision win over Jorge Masvidal.  The two had previously fought in the UFC with Masvidal winning via doctor stoppage due to a cut.  The two fought for the inaugural “BMF” belt at UFC 244 in November 2019. The stoppage didn’t sit well with Diaz.  And on Saturday, the decision did no sit well with Masvidal.

Masvidal’s boxing record now stands at 1-1.  He made his professional boxing debut in 2005 picking up a majority decision win over Joseph Benjamin.  Diaz made his boxing debut last August, losing to Jake Paul via unanimous decision.  Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping believes the loss to Paul was ‘a wake up call’ for Diaz and it showed in his performance against Masvidal. 

“This was a different Nate Diaz,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel.  “When you look at Nate Diaz and the way that he performed against Jake Paul, I thought it was going to be a bad night for Nate Diaz.  But I was wrong.  He came in motivated, in shape, and super aggressive from the very get-go.”

“I think Masvidal landed the cleaner shots, the more powerful shots, but Nate Diaz was in his face the whole time,” Bisping continued.  “However, because of the output, because of the non-stop throwing, and the aggression shown by Diaz, it certainly looked to me without seeing the compustats that Diaz was probably just ahead in a very, very , close fight.”

Masvidal felt like he was robbed by the judges and called for a third match against Diaz.  With the win, Diaz has options, and Bisping believes he’s ‘still a force.’  

“I thought he had kind of dropped off against Jake Paul because it was a little bit embarrassing,” Bisping said.  “It showed Nate Diaz is still a force.  He’s still got to be respected, and he’s a man that now has a lot of options.”

“The Diaz that showed up against Jake Paul was not the Diaz that showed up for Jorge Masvidal.  It just wasn’t the same guy,” continued Bisping.  “I think that (the loss to Paul) taught Diaz a lesson.  I think that was a wake up call.”  

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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has had a colorful history.

UFC CEO, Dana White, and company have built the promotion up to be a billion-dollar entity. UFC famously sold from Zuffa LLC to Endeavor for $ 4 billion in 2016 and the value has only increased since.

Before UFC made its biggest change with the lucrative negotiation, there apparently was an attempt from CBS, according to White. The Octagon boss shared his latest untold story in the video embedded above.

“So, CBS tried to come in and make us an offer to buy us at one point, right? And I was in Hawaii on vacation,” White told FOX News. “And ironically, I’m usually late to everything. I was on the call early and the Showtime guys were on the call early because they — I didn’t know they were going to be on. I thought we were talking to Les Moonves.

“By the time Les Moonves and the rest of them got on the phone, me and Showtime were fighting, going at it, literally, ‘F you, F you,’ back and forth, and those guys got on and heard us going back and forth and the call, literally, that was the end of it,” he continued.

“Lorenzo calls me right back immediately and goes, ‘I guess, we’re not doing a deal with CBS.’ I said, ‘Yes, sorry,” White added, “We got into it a little bit. I hated the guys at Showtime. A bunch of those guys worked for the UFC when we first started out. I thought their production sucked. I thought they were terrible at what they did. And I was very vocal about it. And then it just so happens, we’re talking about CBS making us a billion-dollar offer to possibly buy the company. By the time that Lorenzo and Les Moonves get on, full-blown war on the phone.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Brendan Allen doesn’t want to play second fiddle to anyone.

In April, Allen won a split decision over Chris Curtis in the main event of UFC Vegas 90. The win not only avenged his most recent loss, but was also his seventh straight victory, moving him up to No. 7 in the UFC middleweight rankings. And now it appears UFC is interested in having him fight No. 4 ranked Nassourdine Imavov, at least so says Allen.

On Monday, Allen released a video on Instagram revealing that UFC wants him to fight Imavov when the promotion returns to Paris in the fall. But while Allen is fine with the matchup, he’s less OK with serving as the co-main event.

“This is for everyone that’s asking me what’s up, when am I fighting?” Allen said. “Two weeks ago, they said Imavov in Paris. I said yes. I said I want to be main event because I’ve main evented three in a row, won all three. I’m going into enemy territory, so if we’re going to do it for all the risk, all the gain, let’s go. Main event.

“Next thing you know, we see [Benoit Saint Denis] and [Renato] Moicano are the main event. I ain’t f*cking going all the way to Paris for these two dudes to go over me. One dude is coming off a loss, the other one barely wins, bro. Nah, I’m not with it.”

UFC makes its third trip to Paris and the Accor Arena on Sept. 28, and recently announced that Saint Denis and Moicano serves as the five-round main event for the card. Moicano has become a fan-favorite since adopting his “Money” persona and recently scored a TKO win over Jalin Turner at UFC 300. Meanwhile, Saint Denis is a former French Special Forces operator but lost his most recent fight, coming up short against Dustin Poirier at UFC 299. And that appears to be the big sticking point for Allen, who instead implored Imavov to come to Allen’s home country instead.

“So Imavov, if you want to fight, you want this work, whatever you want to call it, come on over to America, we’ll get it done,” Allen said. “There’s no way we should be below these guys. I know it’s the Ultimate Followers Championship, but even though they got the followers, just put them on the card, people are going to come anyway. So again, Imavov, if you want to fight, you want to get this done, if it’s just me that you want to fight, come on over to America, we’ll get it done.”

Currently ranked No. 4 in UFC’s middleweight division, Imavov is coming off a controversial win over Jared Cannonier in the main event of UFC Louisville back in June. But it’s unclear if Imavov will be interested in Allen’s offer, as the French fighter trains out of Paris and has not competed in his home country since UFC’s debut there in 2022.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Marc Goddard recently said that MMA judging is at its peak, emphasizing that officials consistently deliver genuine decisions regardless of popular opinion.

MMA judging has long been a contentious issue within the sport. Critics argue that some cageside scorers fail to adhere to established criteria, lack sufficient experience in the sport, and occasionally render questionable decisions.

Claims of a misaligned scoring system and lack of quality control in judge training and selection contribute to the ongoing controversy, making it a recurring issue at many events.

Goddard is a highly respected and seasoned MMA referee with over two decades of experience, having officiated numerous high-profile bouts in the UFC and other leading promotions.

With his extensive background, it’s reasonable to assume that Goddard has a profound grasp of the operations and the mindset required to accurately score a fight.

And the Brit maintains that MMA judging has reached new heights of sophistication…

Goddard Asserts ‘Misconceptions’ Have Tainted MMA Officiating

During a recent interview on the Overdogs Podcast, Goddard was asked to share his thoughts on some of the significant errors and contentious calls by MMA judges in recent times.

The UK-based MMA referee responded by highlighting his extensive experience in judging numerous fights and his role in educating newcomers about the intricacies of judging.

“Of course, I am a judge; I do judge. I teach judges. I teach referees and judges.”

Goddard added that although judging has markedly improved recently, controversial decisions are an unavoidable aspect of the sport. However, he pointed out that the most significant challenges in MMA judging arise from widespread misunderstandings and fan biases, which muddle the perception of fairness in officiating.

“Despite what people think, judging now and MMA officiating now is better than it’s ever been. Yes, you’re going to get contentious decisions, and yes, you’re gonna get — but one of the biggest problems we have with MMA judging is misconception. People hear things in certain ways, and they just dive into a rabbit hole with them. They take no time to understand. … And that’s what frustates me and my colleagues.”

In addition to his role as an MMA referee, Goddard is a former practitioner and submission grappler who competed in 14 heavyweight matches during his five-year fighting career.

He concluded his competitive journey with a record of 7-6-1 before retiring from active competition in 2008. Furthermore, he holds a second-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

• Read More: Cédric Doumbé Plans To Ask For Marc Goddard Not To Referee His Fights After PFL Paris Drama: ‘I Will Never Like The Guy’

Continue Reading Marc Goddard Claims MMA Judging Is Better Than It’s Ever Been: ‘Despite What People Think…’ at MMA News.

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