Merab Dvalishvili and Aljamain Sterling Mock Late Stoppages by Referees in Satire Video
%20and%20Aljamain%20Sterling%20(right).webp&w=3840&q=75)
Longtime friends Merab Dvalishvili and Aljamain Sterling dropped yet another skit about UFC referees allowing fights to go on longer than they should.
Merab Dvalishvili and Aljamain Sterling put their funny sides up yet again, this time with a skit about late stoppages inside the octagon. Along with the satirical video, Sterling also released a related poll to learn his followers' thoughts.
Aljamain Sterling Asked Fans Which Referee They'd Associate With Skit
This is far from the first time Sterling and Dvalishvili have created a satirical video based on UFC events. The longtime friends have taken this route multiple times, including using such videos to reply to the fans who mocked Sterling's bantamweight title victory via disqualification.
This time, Sterling's X update displayed him in the role of the incompetent referee who refused to stop the fight despite Dvalishvili's opponent being "already dead." 'FunkMaster' hilariously kept on shouting things like, "I didn't stop the fight, keep going," and "fight back" to Dvalishvili's bewilderment.
Sterling used the caption of his update to create a poll. While multiple referees have been accused of late stoppages to date, the former bantamweight champion left it to the fans to decide who they viewed as the real-life incarnation of the referee in his video.
His caption read, "POV: you’re already dead but _______ is your ref."
POV: you’re already dead but _______ is your ref pic.twitter.com/5Dv5kFIEYf
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) September 7, 2026
A plethora of fans took to the comments section of Sterling's post to answer his poll. The names of several referees, like Dan Miragliotta and Mario Yamasaki, appeared in the replies, but referee Herb Dean clearly won this unwanted poll by a healthy margin.
A few of the comments electing Dean, read:
"Who’s the ref, herb dean lmao"
"Herb Dean running to the replies"
"You are trolling Herb"
It cannot be said that the fans electing Dean are entirely wrong, given that he has been at the center of the late stoppage controversy multiple times. The Francisco Trinaldo vs. Jai Herbert encounter in 2020 is one of them, where Herbert stiffened up and crashed on the canvas, absorbing a left overhand from Trinaldo.
Herbert's opponent took a pause and refused to strike him more due to his condition, but Dean refused to call the fight off. He subjected a nearly unconscious Herbert to four more elbows from his opponent before ending the fight, which sparked a massive controversy in the MMA world.
Sterling's post, however, remains open for more answers.
