This year the veteran referee has been subjected to some very public criticism from some very high profile figures in the sport. Additionally, Dean has been noticeably booed by crowds when being announced and mercilessly mocked on social media.
The latest incident to cause blow back for Dean occurred at last weekend’s UFC 332. On the main card, Dean was refereeing the fight between King Green vs. Esteban Ribovics. In that fight, Ribovics pierced through Green’s guard and herky-jerky movement quickly and dropped his opponent repeatedly before Dean called off the fight. Green immediately protested the stoppage and seemed to be pretty cognizant.
Watch the questionable stoppage right here.
Personally, when watching live, the stoppage seemed justified as Green seemed destined for more punishment from the fast-firing Ribovics. A few folks seem intent on using this incident as another reason to beat down on Dean, though.
Henry Cejudo is in that camp.
UFC’s former Flyweight and Bantamweight champion talked about the Green stoppage on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, a show he hosts with former UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman.
“That dude has just been — f*ck, man,” Cejudo sputtered (h/t MMA Fighting). “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous that the Nevada State Athletic Commission, that he still even has a job, in my opinion. Nobody likes this dude no more. Nobody! They show him on camera, he’s getting booed. It’s ridiculous. No accountability whatsoever. It’s a f*cking mafia.”
Usman defended the stoppage, but Cejudo wasn’t willing to let Dean entirely off the hook. Cejudo also cited a recent Contender Series fight where Ian Escuza landed a illegal knee to the grounded Luca Borando en route to a technical knockout win. In that incident, Dean viewed replay footage of the foul, but did not punish Escuza and thus allowed his win to stand.
“I’m not so mad at this one,” Cejudo said, referring back to the Green stoppage. “Maybe I am just picking on Herb Dean, but the last time, at last week’s Contender Series, where that dude gets f*cking kneed to the f*cking head, and this dude doesn’t have the balls. You should have stopped it right then when he got kneed. That fight would have been a No Contest, and that dude would have not gotten that. The Poatan — it’s just endless, dude. I think he just needs to take a break from fighting. That’s all. He needs to step aside.”
Cejudo also referenced Dean’s performance at UFC Freedom 250, where he officiated the co-main event between Ciryl Gane vs. Alex Pereira. Gane won via technical knockout that night, earning the interim Heavyweight title.
After the fight, Pereira embarked on a passionate and prolonged campaign against Dean online. Pereira claimed that Dean missed several fouls from Gane, including strikes to the back of the head.
Dana White and UFC will maintain that they don’t have control over who gets refereeing assignments, since that’s the purview of various athletic commissions. However, I wonder what Mario Yamasaki and Steve Mazzagatti have to say about that?