A quality MMA referee is focused, strict, and has a strong understanding of the sport. Knowing the rules and how to apply them is one thing, but understanding the intricacies of the fight game is another thing entirely. Referees in the UFC must be on top of their game in the Octagon.

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The best referees can ref a fight and draw little to no attention to themselves in the process, but that's easier said than done. Stepping in between two trained killers is an unenviable task but those with the courage to do so deserve respect until proven otherwise.

10 Best: Marc Goddard

A former fighter himself Marc Goddard was 7-6-1 when he stepped away from competing. But he couldn't step away from the cage entirely, becoming an MMA ref on short notice in 2004 when a promoter was let down by a ref.

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Now a referee for the UFC and many other organizations, Marc has proven himself a skilled ref with an incredible knowledge of the game. He still calls himself a fighter trapped in a ref's body.

9 Worst: Steve Mazzaggati

If you've watched MMA for the past 10 years, you know who Steve Mazzaggati is. Once a ref for the UFC, he proved he was unfit for the job time and time again.

He has missed countless eye pokes, missed fighters going unconscious via submission, and let fights go on way longer than they should have. Dana White has said he will never ref the UFC again.

8 Best: Big John McCarthy

A former referee himself now turned commentator. Big John McCarthy currently works as an analyst for Bellator and has subsequently stepped away from the refereeing side of things.

Big John was one of the first refs in the sport and helped set up the unified rules of MMA in his early days as a ref. He is arguably one of the most respected refs to have ever done it.

7 Worst: Mario Yamasaki

Getting blacklisted by Dana White and the UFC is probably one of the worst things that can happen to an MMA ref. This is exactly what happened to Mario Yamasaki.

Known for letting fighters be "warriors", he continuously let fights go one way longer than they should have to force fighters to take immense amounts of unnecessary punishment and put their lives at risk.

6 Best: Herb Dean

Love him or hate him, Herb Dean has been around the fight game the longest as an MMA ref. He's made good calls and bad calls, but he is the most experienced.

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Everyone remembers his bad calls like the Ben Askren vs Robbie Lawler fight where he thought Robbie went out, but he was fine. He also has phenomenal calls like his Frank Mir vs Tim Sylvia fight where he was the only one in the arena to see Tim's arm snap, and it was later caught on review.

5 Worst: Al Guinee

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You may not remember this guy, most likely because of his short UFC tenure. He stepped in one night to ref a fight at UFC 263 between Jamal Hill and Paul Craig.

Arguably the worst performance by a ref to date, Jamal Hill had compromised his right shoulder and had his left arm dislocated as he tried to tap directly in front of the ref who let Paul Craig continue to strike and torque on the already injured arm.

4 Best: Mark Smith

Mark Smith may not be on the top of everyone's list, but there is not a more principled man than him in the UFC. A former fighter pilot who still contests the Air Force's alleged racial injustice to this date, Mark has somehow found his way to the UFC.

A keen-eyed, competent, and unwavering referee, Mark Smith is one of the best in the business and will only get better.

3 Worst: Vyacheslav Kiselev

One of the brilliant things about the UFC is that when it becomes clear that an incompetent Ref is in the ring, they will not be called back to ref the UFC. They will also instantly be pulled from reffing any fights for the rest of that night.

This is the case with Vyacheslav Kiselev who at UFC 267 let a fight between Benoit St Denis and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos go on much longer than it should have. At one point, Denis said he couldn't see, and the ref let the fight continue. A flagrant miss on the ref's part to let the fight continue.

2 Best: Jason Herzog

The ever-active Jason Herzog has been a ref in the UFC and Bellator since 2009. Since then, he seemingly has not placed a foot wrong as a referee. A true student of the game, who takes his own mistakes to heart and improves from each outing.

Herzog has refereed some of the biggest fights of the past 10 years and one of the great parts about those years is how little his name comes up in the conversation of those fights. The best refs are the ones that are least noticed.

1 Worst: Cecil Peoples

A ref for Bellator, Peoples was known for his odd antics and terrible refereeing. In one of his most atrocious outings as a ref, he missed a tap in a fight between Owen Rubio and Mike Gonzalez, allowing Rubio to come back and win. Not only known for his atrocious refereeing, but he has also graced the UFC with his judging. Coming up short in both his referee career and judging career, Cecil Peoples is not very well-liked in the MMA community.