Herb Dean has been one of the top referees in MMA for over a decade but lately he’s become public enemy No. 1, especially after former UFC champion Alex Pereira went on a very public campaign to end his career.
The controversy started at the UFC White House card in June when Pereira got dropped by a punch from Ciryl Gane and the French heavyweight started blasting away at him with shots in an attempt to get the finish. With Pereira holding on and trying to survive, Gane dropped punches in succession with a few landing to the back of the head, which is illegal.
A few seconds later, Pereira got back to his feet but the onslaught continued until Gane earned the TKO victory. But in the aftermath of that fight, Pereira went on the offensive blaming Dean for not calling the fouls and refusing to penalize Gane for the illegal punches.
California State Athletic Commission executive director Andy Foster was at the event, and as much as Pereira has complained about Dean’s performance, he doesn’t believe the veteran referee did anything terribly wrong with his call that night.
“The thing with Gane and Pereira, I was there. I was watching that in real time,” Foster told MMA Fighting. “That didn’t look anything different … that looked like a normal fight to me. That looked like a normal fight. I think what started that series was the punch that put [Pereira] on the ground. I know that’s what started that series. He’s obviously trying to finish him. [Pereira] is trying to get back in the fight.
“There was no doubt a few of them got through and hit [the back of the head]. The question is what do you do in that situation? Do you stop the action? Because I don’t think many referees would have, if any, certainly at the high level. What do you do with that situation? Tell me that’s not something that you’ve seen before. I think what started that series was the knockdown. That was the case.”
Gane was throwing hammer fists and Pereira was scrambling trying to survive, which meant his head was constantly moving while he was defending he punches. In similar situations that means punches that start as legal blows end up landing in illegal spots due to the non-stop movement.
Despite Pereira’s complaints, the result in the fight still stands with Gane winning via TKO and claiming the interim UFC heavyweight title.
Foster says he believes Dean did the best job possible given that situation, although he did inform the referee about issuing warnings versus potentially taking away points for a foul.
“I told Herb, in my view, you don’t want to warn a lot of times,” Foster said. “At some point, you’ve got to take the point. Now, flip that to the way Jason Herzog handled it was Urijah [Faber’s] fighter this weekend [Wang Cong threw an illegal knee] and Jason Herzog was absolutely correct and took a point right away. I think we’ve got to probably get more towards that for the more egregious fouls. That was a pretty egregious foul. That’s a foul in 2001 and that’s a foul in 2026. I think he handled that the correct way.
“Referees probably need to give their first warning in the back, and I know many, many of them do. But to your point directly, whether it’s Herb or Marc Goddard or anybody that’s received some of this criticism, I don’t think it’s really fair. It doesn’t have to be fair. Being a referee’s not fair. I think Herb Dean’s a good referee and you’ll see Herb Dean on the main event of my upcoming UFC’s because Herb Dean is the senior referee in California. Herb Dean has my full confidence.”
In the case of Pereira vs. Gane, if Dean stops the fight due to those accidental blows to the back of the head, he could completely alter the outcome by giving the Brazilian time to recover.
“That’s the dilemma,” Foster said. “You know that’s the dilemma. So what do you do? That is exactly Herb’s dilemma, and I think it’s worse if he stops it.”
While refereeing is never going to be perfect in MMA, Foster hopes to at least set some new ground rules where fouls are concerned in the sport.
He plans to soon introduce language for a rule change that better defines illegal fouls, and the penalties that come along with it. Ideally, Foster wants to eliminate the idea of “intentional and unintentional fouls” and replace that with new guidelines to help referees when it comes time to issue penalties.
“It’s going to probably going to look like something like incidental, reckless or malicious,” Foster explained. “With malicious being just about as bad as you can get. Like biting someone or something. You’re not going to see that much. Incidental will be not to do it and reckless will be essentially more like your eye pokes. You know how they extend their fingers? You may see some points getting taken from reckless type actions.”
