8 Most Controversial UFC Refereeing Decisions Of 2019
3. Dan Miragliotta Motivates Struve - UFC On ESPN: Overeem Vs. Rozenstruik
On the same night he questionably took away Alistair Overeem's win four seconds from the end of the main event fight. Dan Miragliotta also decided to become Stefan Struve's coach mid-fight early on.
After a second hard low-blow from opponent Ben Rothwell put Struve down for the full five minutes, Miragliotta sat down to explain to Struve he was up on the scorecards and would make the fight a no contest if he decided to stop.
Dan seemed to want to will the seven-foot Dutchman to continue as if he had a bet on a Struve victory. It is not the referee's job to give fighters advice on how to continue; he just has to relay to others if the fighter wishes to stop or restart the fight in the middle of the cage.
The pep talk appeared to work and seconds after the fight restarted a desperate Rothwell swarmed the now beetroot coloured giant and stole the victory.
It was an exceptionally questionable move by Miragliotta, but it also led to one of the funniest moments of the year. Every time Struve rose up during his recovery from the nut shots the crowd cheered ecstatically, and booed when he fell back down.
Eventually, the crowd got comically fast at switching between happiness and anger as all it took was a lift of the head of Struve to gain a response. Click the video above to see the hilarious scene.