Dollaway: Dean didn’t do his job
C.B. Dollaway: “I know the risks we go in there with, but it does make me question what you’re doing. For the amount of money we’re getting paid — we’re not making millions of dollars.”
Herb Dean is and remains one of the best referees in mixed martial arts, but at UFC Fight Night 136 in Moscow, Russia, he failed to do his job. Dean’s fans were baffled and the average MMA fan was genuinely upset when Dean failed to stop Khalid Murtazaliev vs. C.B. Dollaway until well after the round had ended, and Dollaway, who took the fight on short notice, was unable to rise off the floor.
“I don’t feel like I got protected,” said Dollaway to Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. “He didn’t stop the fight. Ever. Like, he was telling me to get on the stool and I didn’t even want to fight. Like, ‘Dude, I’m done.’ I was pretty out of it. I’m going to go out and take more punishment, that’s all that was going to basically happen at that point. I understand being a referee’s a tough job, we all make mistakes in life. It just sucks when it’s you.
The MMA community saw it, you saw it, people saw what happened, and then you have me saying I’m done, and for him to be telling me to get up off the stool, I don’t know. Thank God I knew enough was enough, or it could’ve been even more serious.
I know the risks we go in there with, but it does make me question what you’re doing. For the amount of money we’re getting paid — we’re not making millions of dollars. But it’s a sport that you love. … I have a 5-year-old daughter. I want to be able to always know what’s going on and not be that out of it when I’m done with this career. It just is scary to know that, yeah, if there was two minutes left, what’s that look like then? Like, how far?”
“He stops it too early, everyone dogs him for that. Stop it too late, everyone dogs him for that. So it’s just not an easy job, but that is your f***ing job. … You’re the one who took that job, and the same goes for me. I know what it is when I go in there. We’re not playing patty-cake. It’s a dangerous job and, yeah, unfortunately I got a pretty good taste of what it could be.
“I’ve had fights that I thought were stopped too early and protested, but the ref needs to say, ‘F*** you, I’m here to protect you,’ basically. Like, ‘Shut up.’ But like I said, it’s a cold game that we play.
Dollaway said given the low pay in the UFC, he will no longer be making the cut from his walking around weight of 220 to middleweight, but will now stay at 205, despite the terrible end to only his second fight at light heavyweight.