Mike Chiappetta • E-mail

The debate over officiating in MMA just won't go away. In the recent weeks, it's been all over the MMA world, from message boards to news sites to random talk among fans.

We touched on it in this week's edition of MMA Fight Weekly, and emails drop into my inbox about officiating every day.

Let's get one thing straight right now: Refereeing a mixed martial arts match is infinitely more difficult than it looks on TV. It doesn't look hard to hit a 93 miles-per-hour fastball on TV. It doesn't look hard to kick a 42-yard field goal. And it doesn't look hard to referee an MMA match. These are all optical illusions.

Fans get the luxury of not only watching the action as it unfolds, they also get to watch what happens immediately after a referee calls an end to the action. Second-guessing the referee is a great American pastime, but we always have more information at our disposal because we always get to see the aftermath of how the defeated fighter reacts.

We can see the anger in James Thompson's eyes when the bout is stopped. We can see Brandon Vera verbally protest the stoppage before his opponent ever rises off of him.

But the referee does not get that luxury in real time. He has the health of the fighters in his hands, and his decision to stop a fight must be swift while taking in all the frenetic, multi-layered action that takes place in MMA. He has to watch one fighter straddling the line between escaping damage and falling into unconsciousness at any second and determine when that line is crossed in a fraction of a second. Not after watching the aftermath or the replays. Immediately.

Dan Miragliotta is the one under the microscope right now. He was the third man in the cage for both the Slice-Thompson and Vera-Werdum matches and criticized for his calls. Miragliotta has been officiating MMA matches since around 2000, and has a long body of work in the sport that many are ready to discount for two somewhat-controversial calls.

Miragliotta was also the ref at UFC 85's bout between Matt Wiman and Thiago Tavares, a very competitive bout that swung on one punch, a right to the jaw by Wiman about two minutes into the second round. At the time, Tavares had been fighting with his back against the cage and immediately dropped downward. Before Wiman ever threw a follow-up, Miragliotta was already moving forward to call a stoppage.

If you had a remote control that could stop time, you could have the debate right then: Should he or shouldn't he stop the fight? There was no questioning that Tavares took a solid right. He went down and went down hard, but we've seen other fighters go down and rebound quickly. Miragliotta made his decision with conviction. Other people likely would've had doubts.

Of course, as Miragliotta tore Wiman away from his fallen foe, we all soon realized Tavares was badly hurt, as he stayed down on the canvas for a while and required medical attention. But on first glance, in the heat of battle, would most inexperienced eyes have realized how much trouble Tavares was in after one punch? Probably not.

With the benefit of time, the decision becomes easy, sometimes obvious. Miragliotta and the other MMA refs don't get the benefit of time.

That's not to say they are perfect. Are fights sometimes stopped a punch or two early? Of course. The referees are human; they make mistakes just like you do at your job and I do at mine.

The difference is the referees' mistakes occur on a huge stage with thousands, sometimes millions watching, and it directly affects two participants who have spent 8-12 weeks locked away in preparation.

Everyone strives to be good at their job, and MMA referees are no different. After a stoppage, they will often discuss the call with their colleagues and superiors in order to determine whether or not it was justified. They review tape. They care.

Everything seems so easy on TV, but just imagine how hard it is to determine whether a downed fighter covering his face with his gloves is doing so because he is trying to deflect punches, badly hurt, or simply looking for a way out.

Every fighter will tell you that there are those who look for a way out. Even though they all have a warrior mentality that most of us will never understand, they also experience periods of self-doubt just like anyone else. Sometimes, covering their head is a way to tell the ref, "Hey, I'm done, get me out of here." Other times, they are truly trying to defend themselves, and just not doing a very effective job of it.

Either way, a perceived early stoppage does not cripple a fighters' career. If the public feels a fighter was victimized by a bad call, the organization will likely give him a chance to make up for it. This isn't boxing, where one loss could mean you're done as a big draw or take you out of title contention.

So in the end, what is ultimately lost when a ref stops a bout prematurely? Yes, the fighter gets an "L" on his record, but the public may gravitate into his corner for being wronged, and he leaves with all his physical and mental faculties in tact. He lives to fight another day. And most people would have to admit that they'd rather see a fight stopped two punches early than two punches late.

So let the criticism die down. Rightly or wrongly, Miragliotta has taken his lumps, but he's been in the trenches for a while and has no lengthy history of bad calls. And anyone who's been around the game for any period of time - anyone who's been around life - knows that despite a desire to do things perfectly, everyone has an off-day here and there.

Sometimes it's the fighters, and sometimes, it's the referees. That doesn't make them bad, it only makes them human.

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