Longtime MMA official Herb Dean is taking the recent criticism of his officiating to heart, says legendary referee “Big” John McCarthy.
Dean has been involved in several controversial fights over the past few months that have drawn criticism from fighters, fans, and the media, such as his failure to penalize Ciryl Gane for hitting Alex Pereira in the back of the head at UFC Freedom 250, failing to take a point from Vinicius Oliveira when he hit Andre Fili in the back of the head at UFC Vegas 119, and not doing more when Shara Magomedov pulled Michel Pereira’s hair and poked him in the eye at UFC Baku.
According to McCarthy, Dean has seen this criticism, and he is starting to listen to it.
Herb Dean Taking Criticism to Heart
Speaking on the “Weighing In” podcast, McCarthy confirmed that he has spoken to Dean and that the veteran official is listening to what people have to say about the work he’s done lately, and he intends to make positive changes to his officiating style to make sure the criticism quiets down.
“Herb is doing the right thing. He’s looking at the way he officiates. He’s looking at, ‘Are people starting to read that, you know what, I am a little lenient and I don’t like to affect the fight. Maybe I’m going to start affecting the fight more.’ He’s looking at all those things just like he should and that’s just part of the growing process of being an official,” McCarthy said (via Bloody Elbow).
NSAC Trying to Help Herb Dean
According to McCarthy, after his recent string of reffing mishaps, the Nevada State Athletic Commission brought in veteran Mike Beltran to handle the main event duties at UFC 329 between Conor McGregor and Max Holloway, not as a punishment, but as a way to help Dean take a bit of a step back and get out of the limelight due to all of the chatter about him in recent months.
“They actually brought Mike Beltran in, Mike wasn’t scheduled to do that fight and he ended up doing the Conor fight. That’s the athletic commission not punishing Herb but trying to take care of Herb. They’re trying to put him in a position to say, ‘Hey, just go do what you can do. Be the referee we know you can be and just go do your job and we don’t want you to have any of the real high-pressure fights right now. Just get through this event and let’s get things going in the right direction,’” McCarthy said.
Dean has been refereeing UFC fights at the highest level of mixed martial arts for over two decades, and the fact that he is still officiating over 20 years later is proof that he knows what he’s doing; otherwise, he would have lost his job many years ago.
But he simply has to be better, and hopefully he truly is taking all of this recent criticism to heart and will make the positive changes that he needs to make going forward.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Herb Dean Taking UFC Refereeing Criticism to Heart appeared first on HEAVY.