Brendan Schaub aims criticism at Herb Dean for recent refereeing lapses
Brendan Schaub has joined the recent train of both former and active fighters who have criticized Herb Dean's officiating and his lack of rule enforcement.
Brendan Schaub isn't pulling his punches on his thoughts on Herb Dean's officiating. The veteran MMA referee has drawn tremendous criticism over his inaction regarding rule enforcement inside the octagon. To Dean's misfortune, that conversation has only intensified after his failure to penalize Sharabutdin Magomedov for his various offenses in his eventual unanimous decision win over Michel Pereira at UFC Fight Night 280. Now, Schaub has weighed in.
Brendan Schaub blasts Herb Dean's officiating
On episode #154 of Brendan Schaub's Big Brown Breakdown, the former UFC heavyweight shared his thoughts on Herb Dean's latest blunder. In round one of the Sharabudtin Magomedov vs. Michel Pereira fight this past weekend, 'Shara Bullet' pulled Pereira's hair, then poked him in the eye in round three. Unfortunately, these offenses were not punished, only ever drawing warnings from Dean, which Schaub feels has set a dangerous precedent, as fighters are now more likely to commit fouls without any fear of consequence as long as Dean is the referee (9:49):
"If you're a fighter... it's not even that they're dirty, but you're gonna play in the gray to get away with what you can. If Herb's your ref, it's like, yeah, dude. Kick to the groin if you want. Don't worry about it. Go ahead and poke him in the eyes. Don't worry about it. He's not gonna do sh*t. Go ahead and grab hair, grab the fence. Get away with as much as possible. He's just so timid. So scared to take a freaking point. I don't get it. I do not get it, and it's sad to see because Herb, for the longest time, was the standard."
Check out ep. 154 of Big Brown Breakdown:
It's a concerning trend on Dean's part. Prior to UFC Fight Night 280, he also failed to punish serial eye poker Manel Kape for eye poking Kyoji Horiguchi in round one of their UFC Vegas 119 main event, which Kape eventually won via third-round TKO. He also did nothing to penalize Ciryl Gane, who has a long history of committing fouls, for landing back-of-the-head shots on Alex Pereira in his second-round TKO win at UFC Freedom 250. His controversial officiating has led to criticism from not only Schaub and 'Poatan,' but also Chael Sonnen and Jorge Masvidal, the latter of whom believes Dean is now among the worst referees in MMA.
