Being a UFC referee is tough work and often a thankless job. The best try to stay invisible while also keeping the bouts they oversee from descending into lawless chaos. And while NSAC referee Mark Smith hasn’t always pulled that off, he did manage to keep things on the down low when he injured his knee at UFC 324.
During the broadcast, some eagle eyed fan in the T-Mobile Arena crowd captured footage of Smith being carried backstage. This was immediately after he had reffed the Ateba Gautier vs. Andrey Pulyaev, and there was some concern the guy had a heart attack or something.
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Fortunately that wasn’t the case, according to UFC CEO Dana White … although the truth could keep Smith from working another event for several months.
“Nobody’s asked me about the ref blowing his ACL during the fight,” White said at the UFC 324 post-fight press conference. “ACL [injury]. [Bruce] Buffer’s the only one I’ve seen blow an ACL that wasn’t fighting. Blew his ACL, I don’t know what the time was, but they had to carry him out of there.”
Based on footage dug up by X user WhiteBeltCentral, it looks like Smith’s knee gave out at the very end of the Gautier vs. Pulyaev fight. Video from the end shows Smith stumbling as he ran to get in between the fighters at the final horn, and then limping off with a look of concern on his face. He’d stick around to raise Gautier’s hand in victory before being carted out by fellow officials.
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ACL injuries are a nightmare to heal and often take six to nine months depending on their severity. This could leave Mark Smith out of the cage for half of 2026, unless further investigation shows he only suffered a strain and not a tear. That may be okay with fighters like Maycee Barber or coach Eric Nicksick, but here’s wishing a fast and full recovery for Smith, and hopefully he gets some decent workplace injury benefits to boot.