Legendary referee defends Herb Dean amid Alex Pereira’s calls for his job after UFC Freedom 250 controversy

Herb Dean has the backing of certainly one of the inventors of MMA’s entire ruleset; ‘Big John’ McCarthy, in his latest feud.

For years, there have been questions surrounding a few of Dean’s more questionable calls. But things have ramped up in recent weeks after a concentrated campaign from Alex Pereira following a lot of shots he deemed illegal in his defeat to Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250.

Is it time for Herb Dean to retire from his referee role?

That historic night on the White House was followed up by some dodgy decisions first on the Meta Apex in Las Vegas after which Baku by the veteran referee. And there at the moment are petitions calling for him to be sacked from refereeing altogether.

Big John McCarthy defends Herb Dean amid onslaught from fighters and fans

No person is more aware of MMA and its ruleset than the legendary ‘Big John’ McCarthy. He was involved in defining a lot of the principles during his early days in the game, and he believes that the shots in that UFC White House fight were completely legal.

During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show today, McCarthy was shown a lot of photos that appeared to point illegal punches. Nevertheless, he claimed that they were all fully justifiable shots and explained what’s the back of the pinnacle.

“We’ve got different commissions, we’ve got different groups, we’ve got different people,” McCarthy described when talking about MMA’s big problem. “When the unified rules was put together I made it as open as I could with what was occurring on the time so far as what the back of the pinnacle is.

“We were coming into the world of boxing, and the commissions were very comfortable with the boxing world. They weren’t comfortable with MMA so that they desired to go together with ‘headphones’ [anything behind where one would wear a pair of over the ear headphones] prefer it is in boxing.

“Medically speaking, they’re right it’s what the back of the pinnacle is. But boxing is a 180-degree sport meaning we cut that boxer from those headphones straight down the edges and on the waist then that’s your legal areas where you may punch, you may’t touch their back or do anything.

“MMA is a totally different sport, it’s a 360-degree sport… Within the early days there was no back of the pinnacle and we didn’t have any complaints of individuals going ‘oh, oh my God’, they knew they could possibly be hit.

“If you imagine you may’t be hit somewhere and you’re hit there it’s an attention getter and also you go ‘hey, you may’t hit me there’. So I’m not blaming the fighter in any way, however the back of the pinnacle starts on the crown of the pinnacle, meaning all on top is nice.

“Where [Ciryl Gane’s] elbow is at is an excellent spot. It starts on the crown which is towards the back, happening and it’s a two-inch strip. It’s not a large strip, if I put my hand back it’s my two fingers is what the back of the pinnacle is.

“Our major concern and where the entire rule comes from is the Occipital junction where the skull and the spine come together. That was what the doctor was truly concerned with, so we could take, say, a mohawk.”

McCarthy then explained that there was a transient period where the choice on what constitutes the back of the pinnacle modified from commission to commission. Nevertheless, that has now modified under the unified rules.

As for Pereira and Gane, McCarthy admits that there have been ‘a pair in there’ which he felt could have been illegal shots. Nevertheless, he said that he often tells fighters once they’re in position for a finish to go for his or her opponent’s ear so that they can’t reach an illegal area.

“That’s how open the back of the pinnacle is, actually,” he continued. “So long as you’re touching an ear, you already know you’re going to be good. When you’re within the act of attempting to go after your opponent and so they move their head and it hits them square to where that illegal area is you’re going to listen to me call out your name.

“I’m going to inform someone, say their name is Bob, ‘Bob, that’s an excellent shot, it’s in your opponent, he turned his head, I can’t expect you to stop that mid-throw but I don’t want you to return with a second one, I need you to either switch hands, come excessive and switch directions and tools.

“But don’t come back with a second shot in that area because there’s too many positions where you saw Ciryl Gane in that fight go after his opponent. Do I feel Ciryl Gane is a grimy fighter? No, I don’t.

“I feel at times he becomes reckless when he has the chance to finish the fight and starts to simply wail. It happens with a ton of fights.”