Dean discusses Yamasaki’s controversial Belfort /Hendo stoppage

Many people including UFC president Dana White call Herb Dean the best referee in mixed martial arts. During a recent appearance on Bruce Buffer’s IT’S TIME podcast, Dean discussed the controversial stoppage by Mario Yamasaki of the Vitor Belfort vs. Dan Henderson fight on Saturday.

For the record, I am not even close to the ref either of those two are, but I have done 100s of fights and the stoppage to me was good, but on the quick side of good. And reefing is the most thankless position in the sport. The balance between a man’s livelihood and his health hangs in an adrenalized balance that is not humanly possible to get perfect every time.

Although Henderson declined to complain at the post fight conference, Dean seemed to say that if Yamasaki had been in a different position, the officiating might have been improved.

“It’s hard to say whether I would have handled it differently,” said Dean, as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMA Fighting. “I think the biggest difference was how close Mario was [to stopping it] at that point. Dan had already gone down. He had taken some shots and Mario was almost at the point where he was touching him. I think if Mario was one step back, which he could have easily been, or a step in a different direction, he could have gotten that second to realize Dan was there and was still in the game.”

“I can’t say it would have been different or that it wouldn’t have been different. I think on a different day Mario might have made a different decision. I think Mario … I think he was making a different decision as he was touching him. He realized Dan was kicking him off. He did see [Henderson] go. He saw his head go limp.

“He saw another punch coming. That’s the big thing. You see something that they need to protect themselves from. That punch missed and gave Dan a second more to get back into the game. I think that was what was crucial.”

“This is a rough sport, OK? One thing we know is that on any given night of competition someone’s going to receive an injury like most people don’t receive in their life. At the end of a punch someone’s probably going to get knocked unconscious. Someone’s going to have some joints disfigured. It’s a rough sport.

“At the other hand of it we’re balancing all their hopes and dreams that they’ve sacrificed for against that. That’s how we make our decisions. When we believe it’s no longer competitive, when the guy has nothing left to give it’s time for us to step in and do our job. It’s hard to figure those things out because you can’t feel what someone’s feeling.”