Longtime MMA referee Herb Dean has seen better days in the cage. Less than a month after he allowed Ciryl Gane to land multiple questionable shots to the back of Alex Pereira’s head at UFC Freedom 250, Dean turned in another uneven performance at UFC Baku during Shara Magomedov and Michel Pereira’s bout. As you might expect, fans and MMA media let him know about it. Let’s talk MMA.
Key Facts At A Glance
- Event: UFC Baku (UFC Fight Night), National Gymnastics Arena, Baku, Azerbaijan
- Referee in question: Herb Dean
- Co-main result: Shara Magomedov def. Michel Pereira via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
- The flashpoint: Magomedov was warned for hair-pulling and a Round 3 eye poke, but never lost a point
- The backdrop: Freedom 250, where Alex Pereira accused Dean over Ciryl Gane’s back-of-head strikes
What Did Herb Dean Get Wrong In Shara Magomedov vs. Michel Pereira?
In this instance, Dean warned Magomedov about illegal tactics, but he never took a point. The failure to penalize Magomedov was pivotal as he won by unanimous decision. Had he been penalized, it is very possible Pereira wins the fight by decision.
It’s not lost on fans that both victims of Dean’s last two slips have been Brazilians. In fact, both of them have been named Pereira.
The fouls were not subtle. After Pereira dropped him early and went to work from top position, Magomedov grabbed a handful of his opponent’s hair on multiple occasions, drawing warnings from Dean but no deduction in the UFC co-main. In the third round, Magomedov poked Pereira in the eye, forcing a roughly two-minute pause, and still no point came off.
How Did Fans And Media React To Herb Dean’s Officiating?
There was widespread criticism on X and it wasn’t simply coming from angry fans. Many of the most respected members of the media took to social media to express their displeasure with Dean’s work.
CBS Sports framed the officiating as the story coming out of the co-main, overshadowing what was otherwise a gritty Magomedov rally. The common refrain was simple, that if a referee issues repeated warnings for fouls, at some point a point has to come off, or the warnings stop meaning anything.
Why Is Herb Dean Under Increased Scrutiny?
Dean has a track record of either reacting too quickly or far too late when it comes to intervention via stoppage, warning or penalizing. Many on social media have posted compilation videos of Dean’s errors.
The Baku backlash landed less than two weeks after Freedom 250, where Alex Pereira accused Dean of allowing Ciryl Gane to land repeated shots to the back of his head before the finish. Dean publicly defended that call, arguing the strikes fell outside the narrow illegal target area under the unified rules.
Alex Pereira has since said he is hesitant to compete again over how those sequences are being handled, and a similar back-of-head complaint from Andre Fili at UFC Vegas 119 kept the conversation going. He went as far as calling Dean a coward, a stunning rebuke of the sport’s most recognizable official.
Now the question gaining traction is less about one night and more about assignments, specifically whether commissions should keep handing Dean the biggest co-mains and main events while the scrutiny mounts.