Referee Herb Dean once again found himself at the center of a controversy at UFC Baku.<\/p>\n
In the co-main event of UFC Baku, Shara \u201cBullet\u201d Magomedov defeated Michel Pereira via decision in a fight that was light on action. The majority of the drama happened in the opening round, when Pereira scored a knockdown and proceeded to follow Bullet to the ground to attempt to finish the fight. Bullet used his guard to slow Pereira\u2019s assault, but his defense also involved him pulling Pereira\u2019s hair, a foul that was caught by Dean but not punished by Bullet being penalized a point.<\/p>\n
This incident follows two other recent fights in which Dean was scrutinized. At UFC White House, Dean oversaw the interim heavyweight title fight between Ciryl Gane and Alex Pereira, which Gane won by second-round knockout. Pereira has since loudly complained that Dean allowed Gane to repeatedly hit him in the back of the head and called Dean a \u201ccoward\u201d<\/a> for his handling of the Shara Bullet-Michel Pereira fight. Andre Fili also claimed Dean missed back-of-the-head strikes in his loss to Vinicius Oliveira at UFC Vegas 119.<\/p>\n Now, former UFC fighter Brendan Schaub is taking Dean to task.<\/p>\n \u201cThe narrative on Magomedov\u2019s fight against Michel Pereira, it\u2019s not Shara Bullet,\u201d Schaub said on his Big Brown Breakdown<\/a> show. \u201cIt\u2019s Herb Dean has once again inserted himself into the controversy, and I think for Herb his issue is he doesn\u2019t want to insert himself into the fight and be one of the reasons a fighter loses, stuff like that. But when you\u2019re in that octagon, you\u2019re the sheriff. You\u2019ve got to make sure things are going according to code. You have to. That\u2019s why you\u2019re in there. He just doesn\u2019t take responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201dWhen he issued the statement or when he showed the video after the Poatan fight, I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, this ain\u2019t good.\u2019 Then you have the fight after that with our boy Fili, which is pretty evident, now it\u2019s a common theme. It\u2019s not happening to all referees, it\u2019s happening to Herb Dean. This is three in a row. At some point, you have to insert yourself, and I just don\u2019t understand why are you so scared to take a point? Why are you so scared?\u201d<\/p>\n Schaub lamented that Dean was once considered the gold standard for MMA refereeing, but has seen his decision-making fall off considerably. Even before these recent controversies, Dean has been criticized on multiple occasions for stopping fights too early or too late, and for his staunch refusal to take points away when fighters commit fouls.<\/p>\n As difficult as officiating is, Schaub has little sympathy for Dean.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Fili fight, it\u2019s like, the dude had a straight-up gash in an illegal spot in the back of the head and he\u2019s bleeding, you do nothing,\u201d Schaub said. \u201cThen with Shara Bullet grabbing the hair, it\u2019s like, what the f*ck are you doing, Herb? At some point, insert your g*ddamn authority into the fight.<\/p>\n \u201dYou\u2019ll hear this all the time, I don\u2019t know how this became a thing, \u2018Being a ref, toughest job in the world.\u2019 No, it\u2019s not. No, it\u2019s not. Do your g*ddamn job. Do your job, Herb. Do your job.\u201d<\/p>\n While fighters like Gane also deserve scrutiny<\/a> for potentially exploiting the rules, penalizing unsportsmanlike tactics falls solely on the referee (and, in rare instances, the commission following the conclusion of a bout). Dean has previously argued that he\u2019s reluctant to deduct points during a match because of how much his call could affect the scorecards.<\/a><\/p>\n In Schaub\u2019s view, if Dean doesn\u2019t change his approach, then fighters won\u2019t change theirs either.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a fighter, it\u2019s not even that they\u2019re dirty, but you\u2019re going to play in the gray to get away with what you can, and if Herb\u2019s your ref, it\u2019s like, yeah dude, kick to the groin if you want, don\u2019t worry about it,\u201d Schaub said. \u201cGo ahead and poke him in the eyes, don\u2019t worry about it. He\u2019s not going to do shit. Go ahead and grab hair, grab the fence, get away with as much as possible. He\u2019s just so timid, so scared to take a fricking point. I don\u2019t get it. I do not get it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHerb Dean should go completely the opposite direction and have no wiggle room and just be strict as hell, no warnings, taking points,\u201d Schaub continued. \u201cAnd then when Herb\u2019s your ref, they\u2019re going, \u2018Certain refs we can mess around with. Herb, you do not mess around, he\u2019s going to take a point.\u2019 I guarantee you, eye pokes, groin kicks, fence grabs, hair pulls, all go away. All go away. The only reason you\u2019re seeing this three fights in a row, these boys know, Herb ain\u2019t going to do shit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Referee Herb Dean once again found himself at the center of a controversy at UFC Baku. 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