Herb Dean Will Be The Third Man In The Octagon At The Main Event Of UFC 229, Judges Are Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato And Junichiro Kamijo
We can start counting the days until the big showdown between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. The record number of PPV (pay-per-view) buys has been sold. And now some more good news! The referee and judges for UFC 229 main event were finally chosen.
Judges will be Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato and Junichiro Kamijo. Their task will be scoring. The referee, the third man in the octagon, will be legendary UFC veteran, Herb Dean. He will try to make the fighters respect the rules. The assignments became official at a meeting that happened at Nevada State Athletic Commission in Las Vegas.
Herb Dean has already proven that he has the hawk eye. Let’s look back at the fight between Frank Mir and Tym Sylvia at UFC 48. It happened on June 19, 2004. Frank Mir won the UFC Heavyweight championship. But Herb Dean was attacked heavily when he stopped that fight.
Frank Mir caught Sylvia with a stunning triangle armbar. Sylvia was trying to stand up but he wasn’t showing pain. His face didn’t turn red, he was preparing for the next attack. In the split of the second, his arm simply broke in two pieces. Herb Dean yelled “Oh, sh*t!” and stopped the fight! Many viewers were stunned with the decision. Yet, the replay clearly showed what happened! Not only Herb Dean made a great call but he saved Tym Sylvia from unnecessary suffering!
On the other side, Herb Dean was the referee at the fight between Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis at UFC 225 on June 9, 2018. Despite he warned them many times, fighters were looking at each other and doing nothing!
Herb Dean was also the referee at UFC Fight Night 136 on September 15, 2018, in the match between C. B. Dollaway and Khalid Murtazaliev. Dollaway was lying belly down and covered up on the mat. This is usually a signal that the fighter can’t continue. But Dean let Murtazaliev raining strikes at Dollaway until the horn sounded. Then he asked heavily rocked Dollaway if he is able to continue before he finally stopped the fight.
Herb Dean will receive a funny sum compared to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor paydays. He will be “rewarded” with 1900 dollars. Other three judges will receive “only” 1600 dollars each. What are your thoughts on this? Be sure Herb Dean will see even the slightest rule breaking. And if some injury happens there are almost no chances he would oversee that! And we can bet Conor and Khabib won’t just stare at each other!
