NJSACB Assigns Referees, Judges for Saturday’s UFC 128

---

Saturday night in Newark, N.J., it will be a heavily Northeastern affair where officials are concerned.

Herb Dean will be the third man in the Octagon at the Prudential Center when Mauricio “Shogun” Rua defends his UFC light heavyweight title against Jon Jones in the main event of UFC 128. The three judges assigned to the bout are Douglas Crosby, Dave Tirelli and Cardo Urso.

Counsel to the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board Nick Lembo confirmed the assignments to Sherdog.com on Tuesday.

Apart from California’s Dean -- who will also preside over bouts between Brendan Schaub and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, and Gleison Tibau and Kurt Pellegrino -- the crop of five referees and eight judges is comprised of Northeastern officials who have cut their teeth in the state of New Jersey’s extensive amateur and professional development system.

The most notable appointment for the championship main event is that of judge Douglas Crosby, who was one of the judges at the UFC’s first ever sanctioned event in November 2000. New York’s Crosby was at the center of last April’s controversial UFC lightweight title bout between B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar in Abu Dhabi, in which he scored the bout 50-45 for the victorious challenger Edgar. Following the post-fight debate surrounding the bout, Crosby infamously took to popular MMA forum The Underground in an attempt to explain his scoring.

“Mr. Crosby has been a professional MMA judge for over a decade in New Jersey,” Lembo told Sherdog.com of the assignment. “He has also worked in the same capacity in a multitude of other jurisdictions for many years.

“Since [Edgar-Penn 1], Douglas has worked several shows in our state and elsewhere, both for the UFC (120 and 126) and other promotions (WEC 50 and Strikeforce heavyweight tournament),” Lembo added. “This agency is very comfortable with the assignment, when assessing Douglas’ complete body of work during his entire and extensive judging tenure.”

Below are the refereeing and judging assignments for the full UFC 128 undercard:

Jon Jones vs. Mauricio Rua -- Referee: Herb Dean, Judges: Douglas Crosby, Cardo Urso, Dave Tirelli

Eddie Wineland vs. Urijah Faber -- Referee: Keith Peterson, Judges: Douglas Crosby, Romulo Bittencourt, Jon Bilyk

Kamal Shalorus vs. Jim Miller -- Referee: Kevin Mulhall, Judges: Cardo Urso, Jon Bilyk, Tony Tamburrino

Nate Marquardt vs. Dan Miller -- Referee: Dan Miragliotta, Judges: Douglas Crosby, Cardo Urso, Jon Bilyk

Brendan Schaub vs. Mirko Filipovic -- Referee: Herb Dean, Judges: Romulo Bittencourt, Dave Tirelli, Vincent Sinclair

Eliot Marshall vs. Luis Cane -- Referee Dan Miragliotta, Judges: William Mason, Vincent Sinclair, Tony Tamburrino

Anthony Njokuani vs. Edson Barboza -- Referee: Keith Peterson, Judges: Jon Bilyk, Dave Tirelli, Vincent Sinclair

Mike Pyle vs. Ricardo Almeida -- Referee: Kevin MacDonald, Judges: Tony Tamburrino, Douglas Crosby, Cardo Urso

Gleison Tibau vs. Kurt Pellegrino -- Referee: Herb Dean, Judges: Douglas Crosby, Cardo Urso, Tony Tamburrino

Ian Loveland vs. Joseph Benavidez -- Referee: Kevin Mulhall, Judges: William Mason, Romulo Bittencourt, Dave Tirelli

Raphael Assuncao vs. Erik Koch -- Referee: Kevin Mulhall, Judges: William Mason, Tony Tamburrino, Romulo Bittencourt

Nick Catone vs. Constantinos Phillippou -- Referee: Kevin MacDonald, Judges: Jon Bilyk, Tony Tamburrino, Vincent Sinclair