Why Marc Goddard won’t ever referee UFC champ Leon Edwards’ fights

Don’t count on Marc Goddard to referee UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards’ upcoming battle – or any of his fights for that matter.

Edwards (21-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) defends his title in a rematch vs. Belal Muhammad (23-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) within the UFC 304 headliner July 27 at Co-op Reside in Manchester, England.

The famend referee has officiated a few of the greatest fights in UFC historical past and has had the likes of Colby Covington disagree with him on sure stoppages. However that’s not why Goddard gained’t referee Edwards’ fights. The Brit has a fairly legitimate motive.

“Right here’s a traditional case: Leon Edwards. You’ve by no means seen me referee Leon Edwards within the UFC, and also you by no means will. Why? As a result of I used to be Leon Edwards’ first MMA coach,” Goddard stated on the Overdogs Podcast. Means, method, method again when he was simply an novice. However once more, the commonsense factor for me, despite the fact that the hyperlink is so – who knew then when Leon first walked into that fitness center as a uncooked novice, a uncooked novice with no expertise? Now have a look at him.

“UFC welterweight champion of the world, however you’ve by no means noticed me referee him, and also you by no means will as a result of we simply preserve it out of the best way. I simply don’t need any problem, and I don’t need to be put in a predicament the place I’m making a name that would go towards him, so it’s each methods.”

There are different fights Goddard has most well-liked to not referee however for private causes. He gave an instance of Israel Adesanya and when he refereed his title battle towards Alex Pereira at UFC 281. Pereira scored a standing TKO of Adesanya, who instantly protested the stoppage. Adesanya insisted it was early, however Goddard stood by his name.

“Do you keep in mind when Israel Adesanya fought Pereira for the second time in Miami? I particularly requested not to try this battle,” Goddard continued. “The explanation I requested to not do the battle was as a result of I used to be eager about Izzy, I used to be eager about him. Me and him are high quality. I’ve refereed him since, I’ve refereed his battle with Sean Strickland, however I really eliminated myself as a result of what I didn’t need to do was for Izzy to have me stroll into the dressing room.

“I used to be pondering of the fighter then. ‘That is his evening, it’s all about him.’ I didn’t need to stroll into that dressing room and him to have any type of unfavourable connotation or one thing like that. So, I simply thought that the precise factor to do and the fairest factor to do by him is simply keep out of the battle and provides it to a different ref, and I requested from the fee to not do it. There’s been a few incidents the place there’s sure fighters that I might quite not (referee) for private causes.”