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UFC Referees and the Power Law
by Mike Fagan | [SOURCE]
Without using Google or Wikipedia, name five American MMA referees.

If you're like 98% of the global population (ed. note: figure cannot be verified), you probably listed some combination of John McCarthy, Herb Dean, Steve Mazzagatti, Mario Yamasaki, Yves Lavigne, and Dan MIragliotta. Why is that?
Well, it can all be explained by the Power Law. Here's a layman's explanation from Advanced NFL Statistics:

Have you ever noticed how most of the productivity around your office seems to be accomplished by a minority of your co-workers? It’s no different in the NFL, or most anywhere else.

The power law is all around us, and is a fundamental property of natural organizations of all types. City sizes, for example, are distributed according to the power law. There are a few extremely large cities, more average sized cities, and very many smaller towns. Earthquake sizes, the structure of the Internet, stock market gains and losses, body mass indexes, gravity, social network connections, wealth distributions, and even Kevin Bacon movies all follow power law distributions. If you've ever heard people refer to the "fat tail" or the "long tail," this is what they're referring to. (Fagan, Mike; 05.09.2009 Retrieved HERE)

The distribution of MMA referees in the UFC is no different. Our first example highlights this concept based on the amount of fights reffed by each official since the introduction of the Unifed Rules. (As always, click the picture to view the full-sized imag

iTouch PHelps

Here's the reportage:

BEIJING -- It has been confirmed that Serbia filed an official protest over the finish in the 100-meter butterfly, won by one-hundredth of a second by Michael Phelps over Milo Cavic. After reviewing the slow-motion tape, the Serbians still weren't sure that Phelps had won, but they acknowledged that it would be futile to continue to argue.

"It was very clear that the Serbia swimmer touched second after Michael Phelps,'' a Kenyan referee, Ben Ekumbo, for the international swimming federation (FINA) said. "One was stroking and one was gliding.''

Protest denied: Serbians admit defeat to Michael Phelps 9:55 PM, August 15, 2008

Said Branislav Jevtic, the head of Serbia's delegation: "They [FINA referees] examined the video and I think the case is closed. The video says [Phelps] finished first. In my opinion, it's not right. But we must follow the rules. Everybody saw what happened.''

USA Swimming spokesman Jamie Olson said the tape was slowed to one frame every 10-thousandth of a second just to make sure which swimmer touched first.

Cavic, who was born in Anaheim, raised in Tustin and swam for UC Berkeley, said: "I'm stoked with what happened. I don't want to fight this. People will be bringing it up for years and saying you won that race. If we got to do this again, I would win.''

Cavic acknowledged that the extra half stroke Phelps took at the end was the difference. It was a gamble, but it paid off. Cavic glided to the wall.

"It's kind of hard to see,'' he said. "I know I had a long finish and Michael Phelps had a short finish.''

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MooPig's Open Up a Can Of Worms Department -- has this to offer the foregoing.

"If we have hundredths for rules, then, iTouch is da' finisher!"

Gambling on a thousandths of a second is the one in a thousand gamble, no first touch , no gold piece. Simple and clear? Okay.

Later asked what Milo Cavic was listening to on his iPod and earbuds: "Oh, its a new song by Lil Kim called, 'One was stroking and one was gliding...' Serbian swimmer Milo Cavic said; "Real good dance tune...!"