UFC Referee Pulled From UFC 267 After Controversial Officiating

The UFC pulled a referee from UFC 267, which rarely happens.

Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira put on one of the top fight cards of the year, but there was one that was unacceptable by many outside the cage.

The promotion removed referee Vyacheslav Kiselev after he declined to stop the welterweight clash between Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and Benoit Saint-Denis.

Dos Santos hurt Saint-Denis with massive punches and knees and kept hurting his rival, but the referee did not stop the fight for a long time, even after many unanswered shots.

This kind of case happened before in the UFC when the promotion removed the referee in 2014 when they held the event in China.

Even Daniel Cormier, a former light heavyweight and heavyweight champion and currently one of the most experienced commentators of the UFC, said that it was terrible to watch this fight.

Honestly the worst performance I have seen from a referee in my life. Honestly a hard job but man unreal. Makes you respect the good ones like @JasonHerzogMMA @JohnMcCarthyMMA @HerbDeanMMA and many more. I hated watching that I hope Benoit is heading to hospital right now !

— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) October 30, 2021

“Honestly the worst performance I have seen from a referee in my life. Honestly a hard job but man unreal. Makes you respect the good ones like @JasonHerzogMMA @JohnMcCarthyMMA @HerbDeanMMA and many more. I hated watching that I hope Benoit is heading to hospital right now !”

Kieselev was also scheduled to oversee the light heavyweight matchup between Volkan Oezdemir and Magomed Ankalaev later that evening.