Mark Goddard reveals why he won’t referee Leon Edwards’ matches. đź‘€
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July 7, 2024
Umpire Mark Goddard doesn’t want to get personal with the players in the games he officiates.
Refereeing is one of the toughest jobs in any sport, but combat sports referees bear an even heavier burden due to the deadly nature of the sport. Therefore, to avoid any conflict of interest, referees at the highest levels are not allowed to coach combat sports athletes.
This also means Goddard cannot officiate the bouts of UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards. The Scottish referee hasn’t been seriously involved in coaching for some time, apart from taking weekly classes at a friend’s gym. However, Goddard revealed that he was Edwards’ first MMA coach when he was an amateur. To avoid the risk of being accused of favoritism or being put in a difficult position of having to give a decision against his former protĂ©gĂ©, Goddard has purposely avoided all of Edwards’ fights and intends to continue doing so.
“You’ve never seen me referee Leon Edwards at UFC, and you never will,” Goddard said on the Overdogs podcast with Mike Perry. “Why? Because I was Leon Edwards’ first MMA coach, a long, long time ago when he was an amateur… Who knew when Leon first walked in the gym as an amateur, a beginner with no experience? Now he’s the UFC welterweight champion of the world. But you’ve never seen me referee him, and you never will, because we’re not going to get in the way of that. We don’t want to get in the way of that. And we don’t want to get in the way of getting a decision that goes against him. So it’s a win-win.”
Another instance where Goddard purposefully avoided officiating a bout was the title rematch between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira. Goddard was the third man inside the Octagon when “The Last Stylebender” lost the middleweight title to Pereira in their first bout at UFC 281 in November 2022. However, Goddard asked Adesanya not to officiate the rematch at UFC 287 the following year because he didn’t want to give him negative flashbacks of his first loss.
“Remember when Israel Adesanya fought Pereira the second time in Miami? I specifically asked that fight not to take place,” Goddard said. “Obviously he did it the first time. The reason I asked that fight not to take place was because I was thinking about Izzy…Actually, the reason I pulled out of the fight was because I didn’t want to. I was thinking about the fighter at the time. This night is his fight. It’s all about him and I didn’t want to go into the dressing room and bring any negative connotations to him. So I just thought the right thing for him and the fairest thing to do was to have a different referee regardless of the fight, and I asked the commission not to take the fight.”
