The fallout from Alex Pereira’s loss to Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250 has moved previous a single disputed end and into an argument about how MMA referees are not often held to account. Pereira mentioned he took unlawful photographs to the again of the top through the ending sequence on the White Home occasion, and his frustration has since been echoed by different former champions who consider the game nonetheless leaves fighters carrying the danger whereas officers keep away from the identical penalties.
Henry Cejudo and Dominick Cruz Blast Herb Dean
Henry Cejudo was one of many newest massive names to weigh in, and he didn’t soften his stance. The Olympic gold medalist and former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion said, “Herb Dean, for those who’re about it bro, decide. Take some extent, individuals have misplaced an eye fixed, individuals are dropping pay checks dude, and also you’re on the market getting a normal pay.”
Cejudo’s level tracks with the criticism Pereira and others have pushed because the stoppage as fighters can lose purses, rankings, and title probabilities, whereas referees not often face a public penalty after a controversial name.
Dominick Cruz went additional by tying Pereira’s scenario to his personal long-running frustration with officiating. On his “Love & Warfare with Dominick Cruz” present, Cruz questioned why a physician appeared in materials defending Dean’s interpretation of the rule as a substitute of addressing the injury Pereira mentioned he suffered, then added:
“How come we don’t have a physician explaining how Pereira received hit at the back of the top? We solely have a physician explaining how Herb Dean was proper. And that’s what’s irritating. As fighters, we get shafted and no one’s defending us in these conditions. However everyone’s defending the fee. The referees, they don’t lose half their cash. I really feel you Pereira. Welcome to the membership.”
Cruz’s response carried further weight as a result of he related Pereira’s criticism to his personal title-fight expertise towards Henry Cejudo in 2020, when he argued Keith Peterson stopped the bout too early. Within the episode, Cruz mentioned the true problem just isn’t human error by itself, however the lack of punishment when that error impacts a fighter’s profession, purse, or well being. He mentioned fighters are judged in public and lose cash after defeats, whereas referees “don’t lose something” after they get a key second incorrect.
The Alex Pereira Incident
The unique incident stays the middle of the story. Pereira protested the outcome quickly after the June 14 White Home card, saying Gane landed unlawful blows to the again of his head through the second-round ending change of their interim heavyweight title battle. He later mentioned he had warned Dean earlier than the bout about that actual hazard, then blasted the referee afterward and mentioned he didn’t need Dean officiating his fights once more.
Herb Dean has defended his resolution by arguing that many followers describe the whole rear of the top as a foul goal when the precise unlawful space underneath MMA steerage is narrower. A public clarification that includes Dean and a physician targeted on the nape of the neck and the restricted strip that officers are skilled to deal with as unlawful, and that protection rapidly grew to become a part of the backlash reasonably than the tip of it. Cruz immediately criticized that presentation, saying it seemed like a protection of the referee earlier than there had been equal consideration on the fighter’s criticism.
The controversy stayed energetic as a result of an identical scene performed out lower than every week later. After his stoppage loss to Vinicius Oliveira at UFC Vegas 119, Andre Fili complained to Dean that the ending elbows hit the again of his head, and video circulated exhibiting Dean checking the again of Fili’s head and reviewing replay footage with fee officers close by. No introduced outcome change adopted, however the incident gave Pereira’s supporters one other instance to level to when arguing this was not an remoted criticism.
Khabib Nurmagomedov
That’s the place older criticism of Dean returned to the dialog too. Khabib Nurmagomedov had his personal problem with Dean’s dealing with of Conor McGregor’s fouls throughout UFC 229 in 2018, a battle the place McGregor was extensively accused of fence grabs, glove grabs, and an unlawful knee to a grounded opponent. Reporting from that point and later protection each famous that Dean warned McGregor through the battle with out taking some extent, and outdated footage later confirmed Khabib joking with Dean about how a lot he had been paid to let McGregor cheat.
The Khabib instance is being revisited now as a result of it suits the identical theme raised by Cejudo and Cruz as fighters typically consider warnings come too late or carry too little drive in main fights. In Pereira’s case, the controversy is sharper as a result of it got here in a title battle on one of many UFC’s largest levels, and since Dana White publicly mentioned Pereira is “not a whiner” and acknowledged that a few of the strikes appeared to land to the again of the top.
What began as Pereira’s protest has changed into a bigger public problem from embellished names throughout the game. Cejudo known as for motion. Cruz mentioned fighters preserve getting left alone when these moments occur. Khabib’s outdated grievance is again in circulation. And with Fili including a contemporary instance days later, the criticism round Herb Dean is now not about one White Home end alone, however about whether or not MMA has any clear system for coping with refereeing errors earlier than one other fighter is left asking the identical questions.
