Big John McCarthy says Herb Dean is not ignoring the criticism around his recent UFC work.
Dean has been under a heavier microscope since the disputed Ciryl Gane vs. Alex Pereira finish at UFC Freedom 250. Pereira kept pushing the referee issue afterward, Dana White said the assignment question belonged to the athletic commission, and other fighters continued arguing about how much room Dean gives athletes before he steps in.
McCarthy addressed that wider run during a July 14 episode of Weighing In, after a viewer asked what a referee should do when a respected official hits a bad public stretch.
“Zeke, you’re right. He’s in a rough patch right now,” McCarthy said. “And I always sit there and I’ll talk about everyone becomes the flavor of the month somewhere in their career. And this is Herb’s flavor of the month.”
The full Weighing In episode is below. The Herb Dean discussion starts around the 1:36:30 mark.
McCarthy Says Dean Is Listening
McCarthy said the key is not pretending every call is fine. He said Dean needs honest voices around him and has to decide what can change in his own work.
“I’ve talked to Herb and I’ve walked him through certain scenarios and things like that,” McCarthy said. “And you have to have the people that you know are going to tell you the truth, and you’ve got to take what they say and not just blow it off.”
“You just got to be able to sit there and say, ‘I’m going to listen to what you say and I’m going to take it all in and I’m going to try to break it down to the point where I realize, okay, here’s where I can make my changes. Here’s what I can do different,'” McCarthy said. “And I think Herb’s doing that.”
Commissions Lowered Dean’s UFC 329 Pressure
McCarthy then made the connection to UFC 329. His point was that Dean was not just reviewing criticism privately; the commission also appeared to lower the heat around him by keeping him away from the card’s highest-pressure assignments.
“You saw that even the athletic commissions, Herb was part of UFC 329, but you saw that he didn’t have a whole lot of fights and he didn’t have any of the bigger fights,” McCarthy said. “They actually brought Mike Beltran in. Mike wasn’t scheduled to do that fight and he ended up doing the Conor fight.”
McCarthy said that should be read as management, not punishment.
“That’s the athletic commission not punishing Herb,” McCarthy said. “They’re trying to take care of Herb. They’re trying to put him in a position to, ‘Hey, just go do what you can do. Be the referee we know you can be and just go do your job. And we don’t want you to have any of the real high-pressure fight right now. Just get through this event and let’s get things going in the right direction.’ And I think Herb is taking it well.”
That is the through line McCarthy gave: the commission reduced the assignment pressure while Dean worked through the criticism instead of ignoring it.
That explanation lands in the same broader debate that followed Charles Oliveira saying Dean should have stepped in during Pereira’s heavyweight loss and Brendan Schaub calling for stricter point deductions after multiple foul controversies.
Dean Still Has To Adjust His Own Work
McCarthy also said the public heat can wear on any official, even one who has been through criticism before.
“Obviously, he’s been in the position where he’s had a lot of heat in the past, so he’s used to it to a point, but he’s human,” McCarthy said. “He’s like everyone else, and you get enough people throwing stones at you, you start to want to throw stones back. It’s either that or you just bury your head and get crushed.”
McCarthy closed by saying Dean appears to be examining whether his own threshold has been too loose.
“Herb is doing the right thing. He’s looking at the way he officiates,” McCarthy said. “He’s looking at, are people starting to read that, you know what, I am a little lenient and that I don’t like to affect the fight. Maybe I’m going to start affecting the fight more.”
“That’s just part of the growing process of being an official,” McCarthy said. “You’re never ever going to know everything as far as have all the answers. You’ve got to always be willing to change and evolve. And I think he is, and that’s why Herb will end up being the same great referee.”
So the commission part and the Dean part are tied together. McCarthy framed the lighter UFC 329 workload as a way to lower the pressure, while Dean’s own job is to decide whether his officiating threshold needs to change.
