Mohegan Sun commission head explains warning to Patricky Freire at Bellator 123

The head of the Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation said he was trying to preserve the integrity of a Bellator title fight when he warned Patricky Freire about excessive coaching.

“During the fight, we don’t mind coaching,” Michael Mizzulli, Director of the MTDAR, today told MMAjunkie. “If it’s excessive to the point where the judge cannot perform his job, or the referee cannot perform his job, the commission gets involved.”

Freire, one half of Bellator’s “Pitbull” brothers, questioned the MTDAR’s role after he cornered his brother, Patricio Freire, in a title-winning victory over now-former champ Pat Curran at this past Friday’s Bellator 123, which took place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and aired live on Spike TV.

Freire expressed surprise at the commission’s warning and said, “They said it could influence the judges into rendering the wrong decision. This is the first time I’ve seen this in America.”

Mazzulli, however, said the elder Freire should’ve known the MTDAR’s policies on excessive coaching because the fighter fought at Mohegan Sun in 2011. He said an MTDAR commissioner warned Freire three times before he went to the fighter’s English-speaking cornerman and told him to be quieter.

“I said, ‘Please tell him to refrain from coaching so much. The judge is having a problem concentrating, and it could adversely affect the scores,'” Mazzulli said. “I said nothing about your fighter (losing) because of you coaching. And actually, in the last round, he calmed down.”

Mazzulli said he addresses corner conduct during a rules meeting held prior to each event at Mohegan Sun.

“I’m very, very clear,” he said. “What I do is I talk about back of the house, cageside, and then I go over the unified rules. I explain to everybody that if you’re extremely loud, and it starts to adversely affects the judges, the judge will calm you down twice.

“(A commission judge) said to me (during the fight), ‘He’s really starting to bother me. I can’t concentrate.'”

Corner interference from cornermen (“seconds”) is a foul per the unified rules of MMA and defined as “any action or activity aimed at disrupting the fight or causing an unfair advantage to be given to one combatant.”

With or without Patricky Freire’s voice, his brother was able to earn enough points on the judges’ scorecards to take home a unanimous decision (watch the video highlights) and the title from Curran, who outpointed him in the duo’s first meeting in January 2013.

Patricio Freire, a two-time Bellator tournament winner, broke down immediately after the grueling five-round fight, which saw him drop Curran on multiple occasions.

“It’s a dream come true,” Freire said afterward. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this. I have to think Pat Curran for another war, a second war, one of the hardest fights of my life. Luckily, I’m in one piece. A few scratches, but that’s all.”

For more on Bellator 123, check out the MMA Events section of the site.