Veteran referee Mario Yamasaki has been involved in a few controversies, as of late. One was during the headliner fight between Michael Chiesa and Kevin Lee in Oklahoma last June, and another during the Valentina Shevchenko vs. Priscila Cachoeira fight in Belem, Brazil last February.
UFC president Dana White has been vocal on social media about his disdain for Yamasaki’s refereeing. But apparently, the UFC’s upper management has taken action, at least according to Chiesa.
“I talked to (UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs) Marc Ratner at the UFC Performance Institute, and I threw a little quip out there about Yamasaki being here, and he was like ‘No, we’ll never see that guy in the Octagon again,’” Chiesa told MMAFighting.