There’s been a renewed call for instant replay after Mario Yamasaki’s controversial decision to disqualify Erick Silva for what he thought were illegal strikes to the back of the head on his opponent Carlo Prater two weekends ago.

Referees in the sport encounter the same level of controversy and criticism that befalls their contemporaries in team sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL etcetera). To fans of MMA it can seem that our officials are more inept, but when taking into consideration the increased difficulty in making judgment calls in a combat sport and the fact that unlike in team sports there’s only one set of eyes on the action, I think it runs about even.

The problem is that those very same differences are why MMA referees need to be held to a higher standard.

Obviously there’s needs to be some clarification as to what constitutes a strike to the back of the head. But as Joe Rogan explained in a post on The Underground, the video footage and additional vantage point it provided clearly showed that all but one of the shots were legal strikes to the side of the head:

The people in the truck couldn’t believe it. I had to read it back to them because I thought it was a mistake, and when I leaned over to explain it to Goldie he couldn’t believe it either. I had to ask Mario about it. I didn’t know how he was going to respond, but I had to ask him.

Many viewed Rogan’s confrontation as unprofessional. I was a bit more sympathetic to Yamasaki than most other fans on Twitter and blogs seemed to be. I empathized with him as he saw the video, realized his error, and apologetically stated that he can only go by what he sees in the moment and make a judgment call based on that. What’s really unfortunate is that the whole thing could have been avoided if the UFC allowed instant replay.

Which it should. I oppose it in Major League Baseball because the games run too damn long as it is without the extra time that challenges and reviews would add. For that same reason, though, I think it should be allowed in MMA. The kind of actions that would necessitate Instant Replay are going to be those involving potential rule violations akin to what we saw two weeks ago; the type that end a fight well before its scheduled three or five rounds. Although it’s possible that the use of instant replay would delay or eat up unnecessary time on a card, it’s not very likely unless something happens late in the final round. Besides, the promotion and broadcast team already burn up time after the fight replaying and discussing it anyway.

I also don’t think it would necessarily undercut the authority of referees like Yamasaki, so long as there’s a limit as to what could be challenged. For instance, I don’t think that it would or should be used to dispute whether or not a referee should have called off a fight. However, in an instance like the Silva/Prater incident where Silva was disqualified for what Yamasaki perceived as a rules violation, it’s definitely warranted.

In short, if it’s used to dispute whether or not a blow was illegal or a rule was actually violated, instant replay would do nothing but benefit the sport. It will not address the issue of discrepancies in the interpretations of rules or the rules themselves, but it certainly won’t hurt.