Jason High may have felt slighted for his fight with Rafael dos Anjos being stopped at UFC Fight Night 42 on Saturday night in Albuquerque, N.M., but things got much worse than a loss. High now finds himself without a job, as well.
Referee Kevin Mulhall called a halt to the fight due to what he perceived as High not intelligently defending dos Anjos’ strikes late in the second round. High immediately popped up, furious, and shoved Mulhall in the heat of the moment.
He later took to Twitter to apologize.
“Incredibly sorry & embarrassed for the ref incident. Will never happen again,” High wrote.
UFC president Dana White didn’t witness the incident, but after reviewing it, he contemplated no wiggle room for High, apology or not. He’s gone.
“What I did find out is that I guess that Jason High kid got up and pushed a referee; he’s cut,” White told UFC.com on Tuesday. “I’m going to cut him.
“I look at that the way (Paul) Daley put his hands on his opponent after a fight was over,” he continued, referring to UFC 113, where Daley sucker punched Josh Koscheck after losing to him. “You don’t ever, ever (expletive) touch a referee, ever. You’re done here. He’s been apologizing on Twitter, but he’s done.”