MVP makes serious accusation against Dan Miragliotta

MVP doesn’t want Dan Miragliotta to referee his fights anymore. If the claims he made backstage at Bellator 227 are true, it’s hard to blame him.

Miragliotta was the man in the middle for Michael Venom Page’s grudge match against Richard Kiely in the 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland. When Kiely gave MVP the one-fingered salute just over a minute into the fight, he called time to warn both fighters about unsportsmanlike conduct, which is no. 23 on the list of fouls in the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. He then deducted a point from MVP for pretending to take a selfie in between ground and pound while Kiely was on his back. The fight was restarted on the feet.

30 seconds later, MVP landed a seismic flying knee that landed flush and ended the fight. Ever the showman, MVP danced his way over to the defeated Kiely. Miragliotta stood up and removed him from the situation. According to MVP, the referee called him an expletive in the exchange.

“That was disgusting. Not only did he give me minus a point and pick me up from a fight-ending position, he pushed me at the end and called me a piece of shit. Nobody should do that. That says to me there’s something personal there. I don’t know what it is, but I demand an apology from him. He’s never refereeing me ever again.”

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MVP added that this isn’t the first time Miragliotta has had an issue with his behaviour. He claims to have had a run-in with the ref before his fight against Nah-shon Burrell in 2014.

“Dan, for me, has a personal issue with me. I don’t know where it comes from. My second Bellator fight, I was walking down the ramp backstage and I remember trying to get in the zone – everyone knows me, I’m a showman – I came out with my glasses and he’s like, ‘Take them off. It’s not Hollywood.'”

“Now this is the first time I’ve ever met him. Straight away I felt I may have rubbed him the wrong way. I just let it go, took my glasses off and carried on – put on a show.”

Steve Marrocco of MMAFighting reports that Kiely was fined $1,000 by the Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation for flipping the bird during the fight. Page’s antics are also being reviewed by the commission which oversaw the event. A decision on what punishment MVP will receive is set to be made on Tuesday.