I have filled a number of roles in MMA including coach, fighter, glove runner, judge, ref, photographer, videographer, marketer, glove designer, glove runner, cage assembler, and blogger, and nothing is as remotely thankless or impossibly difficult as refereeing. Referees must balance a fighters’s livelihood with his or her health, in a hurting game. Further, as ref you can see things others can’t – I have reffed fights where the guys were landing bombs and on tape it looks uneventful, and I’ve let fights go on that the audience believed were over.
With that preface, referee Herb Dean – one of the all-time best eva – received widespread criticism for two stoppages at UFC on ESPN 14:
•Tanner Boser vs. Raphael Pessoa
https://twitter.com/ufc/status/1287153650910068743
•Francisco Trinaldo vs. Jai Herbert
https://twitter.com/espnmma/status/1287174290442465280
Commentator and fighter Dan Hardy was not impressed.
https://twitter.com/btsportufc/status/1287176885118685189
Stop the fight! That’s two times now! Hardy can be heard yelling during the fight. Hardy then sought out Dean and criticized him face to face, a break with rules that say officials should only be approached by members of the regulatory body.
I’m doing my job, now you do yours! said Hardy, as transcribed by Ryan Harkness for MMA Mania. Gotta look out for these fighters! My goodness!
Co-commentator and fighter Paul Felder agreed on the post-fight show.
His job is to protect the fighter and if the fighter is out, I don’t care if there’s one second left on the clock, if he’s knocked out and he’s stiff? said Felder. “Look at that fight again and look at his hands and where he’s at. Just because he’s doing this, stiff, does not mean he’s defending punches. If Trinaldo can stand over you being the scary man that he is for a good three seconds without having a punch and you don’t move? You’re out.
He’s really defending himself. He’s really putting on the fight of his life here,” continued Felder, with sarcasm dripping. “He ate shots that he didn’t have to eat.
https://twitter.com/streetfitebncho/status/1287256804804657152
Commentator Jon Anik agreed emphatically.
Dan Hardy has always had my respect as one of the best MMA minds/analysts out there but he’s especially deserving of praise tonight,” said Anik, as transcribed by Simon Head and John Morgan for MMA Junkie. “Analysts must be critical when they believe the situation calls for it. Can’t hold back. He didn’t. He’s not trying to make friends.
https://twitter.com/Jon_Anik/status/1287188682026487814
However, criticism of Dean was not unanimous; Dean defenders included UFC light heavyweight Sam Alvey.
https://twitter.com/smilensam/status/1287174466011889670
https://twitter.com/smilensam/status/1287181348201852928
At the post-fight press conference, SVP David Shaw addressed what happened.
I wasn’t on the floor when it happened. I did hear some of the comments on the broadcast,” began Shaw, as transcribed by Simon Head and John Morgan for MMA Junkie. “Here’s the thing, being a ref in MMA is one of the hardest roles that you can have, and Herb Dean is one of our best, categorically. Bottom line is, health and safety of the athletes is of paramount importance. On the other side, you’ve got a guy like Hardy who, very successful MMA career, an excellent analyst right now, but he’s passionate and he’s fiery.
The important thing for us to do is to try and get a handle and try to get an understanding of what actually happened. Obviously, this is not something that you address with either one of the parties during the show. These guys have a job to do and so we certainly don’t want to disrupt their efforts to do an excellent job, as we expect they always will. So we’ll go back, we’ll check it out, try to get a better understanding of what happened and really take it from there.
I guess the bottom line is there’s one group of people that are able to talk to officials during the fight night, and that’s [Marc] Ratner’s regulatory group, and no one else. So we’ll see what happens next week when we get back to the office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmHq28l2uDk
What do you think UG?
