UPDATED - Josh Koscheck Responds to Yves Lavigne

Note from Bix: In the interest of full disclosure, I've freelanced in the past for Slam! Wrestling, which is part of the same Canoe network of sites as Le Journal.  Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog post...

Josh Koscheck, at his official website and via his Twitter, has issued a response to referee Yves Lavigne in regards to recent comments made by the ref regarding the fight between Koscheck and champion Georges St. Pierre.

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.

I have to agree with him in a lot of ways here. Lavigne is certainly allowed to have his opinion on fights but he should not be talking about upcoming fights to the press. More from Koscheck:

The (UFC) and the commission would be irresponsible to let him continue his job- any call this guy makes would have to be questioned. You call MMA a professional sport?  Well, professional starts at the top. Never would an NFL, NBA or other major sports official state there personal opinions publicly about a player and keep their job.  I now question every call Yves has ever made as a referee. Hopefully no fighter ever has to step into a fight with Yves Lavigne as referee.  Better get that resume ready Lavigne….."

Again, I'm not in total disagreement with Koscheck here but not allowing him to work over this might be a little excessive. Lavigne needs to understand that he can comment on past fights but it's not at all okay to comment on fights that have yet to take place. His words can be interpreted in many different ways, none of them good for his career. I don't mind Lavigne as a referee at all, in fact I think he's probably one of the better refs in MMA, but he made a big mistake here. I"m curious to see how this develops.

UPDATE 1 - According to the Twitter account of David Simon, Yves Lavigne never gave the interview that Koscheck is responding to:

"Just got off the phone with Yves Lavigne. He claims he never gave the interview to Le Journal."

The plot thickens. Waiting on some sort of official statement from Lavigne or the UFC. Simon claims in another tweet that Lavigne is waiting it out and keeping quite while his lawyers handle things.

UPDATE 2 - Koscheck comes down the line with the following tweets:

"Yves is saying he never gave that interview.lol ya right! Come on Yves...Man up! Now back tracking bc the UFC called his ass."

"So someone just had it out 4poor Yves? Ya right! I still don't give a f-ck he's never ref1 of my fights again&other fighters should watch out."

"Now I said what I had to say on the matter....over it"