UFC veteran referee Dan Miragliotta faces scrutiny once again. The legendary official, who has overseen more than 500 UFC fights, drew attention after an incident earlier this month at UFC Vegas 113. On the card on February 7, light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira’s former GLORY rival, Dustin Jacoby, in his 17th UFC appearance, dominated the action against Julius Walker. He made an impact from the very first round.
Then, Jacoby intensified his assault in the second round, landing a combination that knocked Walker out. The fight seemed over when Miragliotta almost stepped in. But when ‘The Hanyak’ was about to pull away, thinking the fight was over, Miragliotta stepped away. The veteran referee even told Jacoby to continue. So, following the referee’s instructions, Jacoby delivered several more blows on Walker, who by now was grabbing his leg for dear life. He had to pull away his leg violently so he could continue with the fight. This was before the fight officially ended at 1:42 of round 2. Although Dustin Jacoby won eventually, he has now revealed that the referee’s mistake likely resulted in an injury.
Alex Pereira’s former opponent points out UFC referee’s blunder
“I’ve had Dan several times, and I’ve always had good luck with him,” Jacoby told MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin. “So I can’t complain. What I will say, when I dropped Julius that first time, he came in and he touched me with his chest and he waved his arm briefly, his left arm. So at that moment, I’m like, ‘You just stopped the fight!’ He backed up and he’s like, ‘I didn’t stop the fight.’ I was like, ‘You touched me!’ He goes, ‘I didn’t f–king touch you, keep fighting.’ So at that moment, Julius had grabbed my leg pretty hard. While I’m arguing with Dan, I go to pull my leg out and I actually kind of tweaked my knee.
“I had to go get an MRI yesterday. I’m waiting to find out. I may have torn my meniscus again. My left meniscus was torn. I think I torn my right one during that moment right there.”
The MMA veteran admitted he felt nothing at the time. But slowly, he could feel something wasn’t right.
Dustin Jacoby may have suffered a nasty injury thanks to referee Dan Miragliotta. pic.twitter.com/D5xmCUHHbK
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) February 22, 2026
“There I was after the fight because your adrenaline’s going, you don’t feel everything during the moment,” he recalled. “I didn’t feel anything sore until 10 minutes [later after] you walk out of the cage you’re like holy shit, this hurts, this hurts, this hurts. That knee had to have been from that.
“It definitely affected me. It injured me, which is kind of a big deal. I don’t know what’s going to come of that. It’s not like I’m going to be pressing charges or anything like that. It’s just crazy that happened.”
Jacoby now waits for his test results, which could further delay his return.
However, this incident adds another infamous chapter to UFC referee Dan Miragliotta’s legacy. He has made similar errors before. Notably, last year at UFC Fight Night 262 in Vancouver, he drew criticism during the lightweight bout between Kyle Nelson and Matt Frevola.
Nelson came close to a first-round knockout, but Miragliotta stepped in, thinking the round-ending horn had sounded. It hadn’t, which confused everyone and cost Nelson the knockout victory. On the same night, during the co-main event between Mike Malott and Kevin Holland, Malott landed two potentially illegal strikes, but Miragliotta issued only warnings instead of deducting points.
Now, with this latest UFC blunder, Dan Miragliotta again draws attention. Despite Jacoby’s injury and the recovery ahead, he remains forgiving toward the controversial referee.
Dustin Jacoby wants to “move on”
At 37, Dustin Jacoby has experienced just about everything in combat sports. He has built a career spanning more than a decade, starting in MMA before moving into kickboxing, where he even faced Alex Pereira in 2014. After an unsuccessful run, Jacoby continued in kickboxing for several years. Then, in 2019, he returned to MMA.
Over the years, his experiences taught him patience and how to stay composed under difficult circumstances, and he relied on these skills during the incident with referee Dan Miragliotta.
“I can only control what I can control,” said Dustin Jacoby. “And I knew with him, I couldn’t control any of that. I could just control finishing the fight. That’s what I chose to do. I move on with it. Even afterwards, I shook Dan’s hand. I was like, we’ve had brilliant success together. I’m not holding anything against you; we’re just going to keep moving forward. But I hope I’m not out months from this.”
With that, Dustin Jacoby has officially buried the hatchet with the referee. Still, what do you think about Dan Miragliotta continuing to make these errors? And should the commission step in and hold him accountable?