Referee Yves Lavigne is denying he made comments to a Montreal newspaper regarding the Georges St-Pierre versus Josh Koscheck UFC welterweight title fight set for December.In a Journal de Montréal published an article with supposed comments from Lavigne where he not only claimed that Georges St-Pierre was going to easily defeat Koscheck but also questioned Koscheck’s choice of training camp. The piece was translated and quickly spread onto several MMA web sites.
Yves Lavigne has provided RingsideReport.NET with an exclusive statement via e-mail regarding the supposed interview:
1. I NEVER gave an interview to that journalist
2. I NEVER gave an interview regarding GSP vs Koscheck
3. My lawyer is taking care of this matter.
Upon reading the supposed comments from Lavigne in Le Journal de Montréal, UFC fighter Josh Koscheck released a statement via his website that was highly critical of Lavigne:
UFC referee, Yves Lavigne is clearly not suited to be a referee after his rant of personal attacks and opinions on me as a fighter. It’s supposed to be his job to look at a fight unbiased, but how can anyone trust this guy to fairly referee any fight ever again after his comments? It’s scary to think this guy has been calling fights in the octagon for this long. It’s very fair to say Mr. Lavigne will never ref one of my fights again. I would never put all my hard work as a fighter or my livelihood in the hands of this ref … (full statement at kosmma.com)
There was an addition to the online version of the interview with Lavigne:
Notons que suite à un malentendu, les propos de cet article ont été recueillis dans un contexte non propice à la diffusion.
Which basically means: Following a misunderstanding the quotes from this article were taken in a context that was unfit for public consumption.
Even with the addition the stories of Lavigne and the author, Vincent Morin, still differ. RingsideReport.NET has attempted to contact the author and has yet to receive a response to how exactly they got those “quotes” from Yves Lavigne.
Good job with this one Dave! Pretty big story. Just released it on UltimeFanatic and gave you the credit with a linkback.
What hit me like a slap in the face is that it concerns the same reporter who is currently sued by David Loiseau like I reported earlier this month (http://ultimefanatic.com/nouvelles/local/866-david-loiseau-poursuite-quebecor-media.html) It is also the same reporter who wrote Gary Chartrand presumed incriminant statement regarding the Steve Bosse affair. Chartrand denied and even said he never spoke with this reporter who presumedly reported his statement. It is also the same reporter who wrote an article following Titans Fighting intitled “Titans Fighting : un show truqué?” I honestly dunno what’s going on at Canoe… Might be a sad consequence of the fact their usual reporters are in lock-out.
Notice that he states “I never gave an interview”, not I didn’t say those things. Notice that the website also put that disclaimer up. Sounds like a case of off the record.