British Officials Rule Themselves Out Of Future ACB Events

British MMA officials and referees Marc Goddard, Leon Roberts, Dan Movahedi, David Lethaby, Ben Cartlidge, Mark Collett and Kev Capel have all ruled themselves out of involvement with any future ACB events, after news broke that the Russian organisation had overturned two results from its recent card taking place in Vienna.

A statement provided to Fighters Only magazine from the individuals collectively reads; ‘Since ACB’s decision to overturn the results in their Vienna ACB 52 event between Patrick Kincl vs. Arbi Agujev and Joao Luis Nogueira vs Shamil Nikaev; the listed officials will be stepping down from working the planned ACB 54 event in Manchester on March 11th.’

The Russian promotion released a statement surrounding the controversial overturning of results, “The result of the Shamil Nikaev – Joao Luiz Nogueira fight changed to NC (No contest). On Friday the ACB office received reports from the independent judicial experts from Russia and Europe. 12 of the 12 judges awarded their points in favor of Nikaev. They are the experts from Russia Viktor Korneev, Maria Makhmutova, Ahmed Baysultanov, Magomed Magomedov, Yuri Batman, the Polish judge Pawel Harasim and many others. As a result, the promotion has changed the decision of judges who served the ACB 52 tournament in Vienna. Beginning from the next ACB tournaments the judge panel will be radically revised.”

British official’s went on further with their statement to claim “Without any sign of judge corruption or incompetence, as a group of officials we feel it is a hugely dangerous and unprecedented step to change a unanimously agreed decision after the event. Also, in the main event, referee Neil Hall called a stop to the contest declaring Patrick Kincl the winner via TKO. Mr Hall made his assessment that Agujev was no longer intelligently defending himself in mount, and stopped the bout in the interest of fighter safety. This result was also later overturned to a no contest by the promotion.”

‘In the interest of supporting the Unified Rules of MMA and respecting the performing athletes, all the British staff listed above feel that officiating positions within the ACB organisation have become untenable.’

ACB have an upcoming UK event on March 11^th, taking place in Manchester, headlined by a title fight between former UFC competitor Luke Barnatt and current KSW Middleweight Champion Mamed Khalidov.