Xavier Franklin won’t be advancing to The Ultimate Fighter 34 tournament final and veteran referee Herb Dean has something to do with it.
The most recent episode of the UFC’s long-running reality series saw Franklin face off against Team Michael Bisping teammate Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu in a bantamweight semifinal bout. Akylbek Uulu used his wrestling to control much of the contest, but Franklin surged in the third and appeared to finish Akylbek Uulu with strikes with less than a minute remaining in the final round. Referee Herb Dean stepped in to wave off the bout, but Akylbek Uulu continued to complain of an eye poke, prompting Dean to go to video replay.
After much confusion, Dean claimed he called for a timeout, not a stoppage, and the bout was eventually restarted. Akylbek Uulu and Franklin went to the scorecards, with Akylbek Uulu earning a decision win. Dean’s questionable handling of the situation is just the latest on his ever-growing list of officiating gaffes, and Franklin had plenty to say about the call that might have cost him his shot at the UFC.
“I think I hit him with a right hand or something, and I hurt him and he was wobbled bad,” Franklin told MMA Fighting, recounting the conclusion of the bout. “So I went to like, a slap punch, but it was like my hand framed on his head. And then I pulled my hand down and then that’s when the right hand came and I hit him. And then Herb Dean—I looked, because it was fast, but in my head it was so slow—Herb Dean was like, ‘I didn’t see any poke. Go.’ Then that’s when I hit him again.
“I didn’t want to hit him because I was like, ‘F*ck bro.’ I didn’t poke him and Herb Dean’s like, ‘I didn’t see a poke,’ so then I just boom. So then Herb Dean gets between us and he’s like, ‘There was no poke, you have to keep fighting.’ So that’s why I ran back up to him, I’m like, ‘Oh shit, I’ve got to hit him again. I’ve got to finish the fight,’ and then Herb Dean’s like, ‘It’s over. The fight’s done.’”
On the broadcast of the episode, Dean can clearly be heard saying, “You’re done, stop.” Moments later, he called for the replay, initiating a break that took at least five minutes according to Franklin, who has been providing behind-the-scenes insights to MMA Fighting this season. When the commission asked Dean if he waved off the bout, he said he did not, and that he actually called for a timeout.
That didn’t sit well with Franklin or his coach Bisping.
Xavier: So in this, they asked Herb, they’re like, “Did you call the fight?”
And he goes, “No, I said time.”
In my head, I’m like, “You lying bastard.”
That’s when Bisping goes, “You f*cking said the fight’s over, you didn’t call time.” He said, “Even if he poked him, you didn’t step in during the poke. You let him hit him again, you let him hit him again, and then you stopped the fight.”
The lengthy break was less than ideal for Franklin, who says he felt his adrenaline was gone by the time they were asked to continue and Akylbek Uulu had plenty of time to recover from the most damaging blow of the contest. To add to the confusion, after the Round 3 buzzer sounded, Franklin was under the impression the fighters could go to fourth round if they were tied up on the scorecards, with Dean going as far as to kick everyone out of the cage should there be an extra period.
However, the judges were able to come to a conclusion, scoring the bout in Akylbek Uulu’s favor.
Afterwards, Bisping went ballistic.
Xavier: I get in the back and Michael Bisping is f*cking going crazy. He’s like, “What the f*ck? You got f*cked. I can’t believe this. I’ve never seen anything like this. We told you what to do. You went out there and finished him.”
Then they reverse the call, you can’t reverse the call that you already called, you can’t reverse that. He went out there and said the fight’s done, it’s over, and then he lied and said it wasn’t over because everybody was asking Dana [White], “What the f*ck?” and Dana’s like, “What the f*ck did the ref call?” It just turned into chaos.
Did Dean stick around to explain his call?
Xavier: He didn’t explain shit to nobody. He just was trying to cover his ass because he literally panicked when everybody was like, “Dana, what the f*ck?”
Did Franklin try to appeal to the commision?
Xavier: No, because I think they knew he f*cked up so bad, I think it was just one of those like, “Oh shit.”
It was just one of those situations where I was like, when they say don’t leave it in the hands of the judges, I try not to, and then it just went the way it did. I’m not bitter that Ilimbek won, obviously, we’re boys. That’s like my little brother, but it just feels like I didn’t lose at the same time that I won.
Despite bowing out in the TUF 34 semifinals, Franklin is still optimistic he’ll get his shot to fight in the UFC sooner rather than later. Should he make that walk to the octagon, he’s hoping Dean isn’t the third man in the cage.
Xavier: I didn’t even want to talk to him afterwards. I was too riled up. I probably would have got f*cking suspended or something if I talked to him afterwards.
No more Herb Dean ever. I’m going tell them debut me somewhere else. I’m going to have to make the call to to Papa Dana. “Dana, listen, bro, please just don’t let him be my referee.”
Drama seems to follow Franklin around as his quarterfinal bout also featured controversy after he landed a knee on a grounded Micaias Urena that had Urena’s coach Daniel Cormier crying foul. Replays conclusively showed Franklin’s knee connecting with Urena’s body, not his head, making it a legal strike, and Franklin went on to win that fight by knockout.
That victory put three Team Bisping fighters in the semifinals: Franklin, Akylbek Uulu, and Mehemmedeli Osmanli. Franklin says Akylbek Uulu and Osmanli were already butting heads in training, so matching them up made sense, but Franklin instead had to fight his close friend. When Franklin and Akylbek Uulu expressed awkwardness over the situation, that opened up a whole other can of worms.
Xavier: After that shit happened, after he chose us, we went back to the locker room and then Bisping’s like, “What are we going to do with the training situation?”
“I was just like, “I can’t train next to him. It’s just bad. I’ll just go train on DC’s side.”
And then Mike’s like, “OK, I guess.” And then he was asking Ilimbek, “What do you want to do?” Ilimbek’s like, “Coach, I can’t train next to him. He’s my friend, but we can’t train next to each other.” It’s just hard to train next to each other and then you’re going to fight, it’s weird.
Unfortunately, because Cormier’s fighter Christian Strong had also advanced to the semis, he wouldn’t allow Bisping’s fighters to train with them.
So Bisping had to lay the hammer down on his charges.
Xavier: Mike goes, “Stop being a bitch. You’re acting like a bitch right now.” Just starts disrespecting Ilimbek and I’m like, “Oh my God.” He’s like, “Y’all acting like a bunch of p*ssies. You didn’t have any friends before you came here, you’re here for yourself.” Just going off, it was just crazy, and I’m just like, “Wow.”
I mean, it was unacceptable, but I credit it, he was jetlagged, but I’m just like, “You don’t talk to somebody like that, Mike, come on, man.” You know how Mike is, but I’m just like, “This is all f*cked up. This is just a shitty situation, it’s so bad.”
Because much of the episode was taken up by Franklin and Akylbek Uulu’s fight, there were apparently several scenes left on the cutting room floor that showed how conflicted they were about going up against one another. Franklin recalled one quiet moment, before the semifinal matchups were finalized, when the two were talking and they fully felt the weight of the situation.
Xavier: They didn’t even show there’s a part where me and Ilimbek are both walking on the treadmill together talking about like, “You think we’re going to have to fight each other?” all this, and I was like, “Yeah.” And we both were saying, “Before we got here, we said we’ll fight anybody.”
He said, “Now, you’re the only person I wouldn’t want to fight.”
I said the same exact thing and I was just like, “Damn.”
The Ultimate Fighter 34 streams exclusively on Paramount+ with new episodes every Tuesday.
Unlike most editions of TUF, coaches Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier will not fight at the conclusion of the season, as both are long retired.
The finalists of the TUF 34 bantamweight and strawweight tournaments will compete for a six-figure UFC contract in the show’s live finale fights. A date for those bouts is yet to be announced.
See The Ultimate Fighter 34 teams below.
Team Bisping
Bantamweights
- Xavier Franklin (6-1-1, 1 NC), U.S.
- Mehemmedeli Osmanli (11-1), Azerbaijan
- Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu (9-3), Kyrgyzstan
- Marlon Jones (5-0), U.K.
Strawweights
- Anna Melisano (6-1), U.S.
- GiGi Canuto (7-1), Brazil
- Mackenzie Stiller (6-1), U.S.
- Natalia Alves (8-0), Brazil
Team Cormier
Bantamweights
- Artem Belakh (11-2), Kazakhstan
- Micaias Urena (12-4), Dominican Republic
- Sean Mora (7-1), Cuba
- Christian Strong (9-1), U.S.
Strawweights
- Tina Black (15-4, 1 NC), Brazil
- Delphine Benouaich (7-2), France
- Melissa Amaya (8-0), U.S.
- Anita Karim (6-2), Pakistan
Here are the semifinal results and pending matchups:
Melissa Amaya def. GiGi Canuto via TKO (strikes) (R2)
Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu def. Xavier Franklin via decision
Delphine Benouaich vs. Tina Black
Mehemmedeli Osmanli vs. Christian Strong
Here are the quarterfinal results:
Melissa Amaya def. Anna Melisano via submission (rear-naked choke) (R1)
Christian Strong def. Marlon Jones via decision
GiGi Canuto def. Anita Karim via TKO (strikes) (R1)
Mehemmedeli Osmanli def. Artem Belakh via submission (rear-naked choke) (R1)
Tina Black def. Natalia Alves via TKO (strikes) (R2)
Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu def. Sean Mora via decision
Delphine Benouaich def. Mackenzie Stiller via decision
Xavier Franklin def. Micaias Urena via TKO (strikes) (R1)
Advancing to finals: Amaya, Akylbek Uulu
Advancing to semifinals: Amaya, Strong, Canuto, Osmanli, Black, Akylbek Uulu, Benouaich, Franklin
Eliminated: Melisano, Jones, Karim, Belakh, Alves, Mora, Stiller, Urena
Xavier Franklin is a cast member on The Ultimate Fighter 34 and a guest contributor to MMA Fighting. He also served as Michael Bisping’s unofficial English accent translator on the show.
