TUF 10 Finale thought 6: Jones’s DQ was the right call, any way you look at it

Don’t be upset that Jon Jones got disqualified, handing a bloody and dazed Matt Hamill the win in their Ultimate Fighter Finale light heavyweight bout. Referee Steve Mazzagatti made the right call.

Jones obliterated Hamill, got mount and then began raining down fists, forearms and elbows like it was the bombing of Dresden. The barrage – some 85 blows in all – busted open Hamill’s nose and filled his eyes with blood, as though he was wearing a red Lone Ranger mask. Then, Mazzagatti jumped in and deducted a point from Jones for throwing a few illegal strikes from the top – downward elbows that were a textbook example of the “12-to-6″ variety. With Hamill dazed, bloody and unable to continue Mazzagatti waved off the bout. But even before Jones could really begin to celebrate he was DQ’ed.

Here’s what the broadcast didn’t tell us: after stopping the fight Mazzagatti checked the instant replay, the first time in history that the Nevada State Athletic Commission utilized it, and he saw that the decisive damage – the busted nose, etc – was the direct result of the illegal blows, and that’s why Hamill earned the win (the hard way). If you think it should have been ruled a no contest, that can only happen if the fouls were accidental and it’s pretty clear those downward elbows were thrown with intent.

Mazzagatti might be UFC president Dana White’s favourite whipping boy but he made the right call here. Unless you wonder why he didn’t step in to halt the fight somewhere around the 80^th blow, or the 75^th. Needless to say, this loss for Jones is not really a loss. He proved he’s scary dangerous. And instant replay proved it has its uses, as well.