Alex Pereira’s move to heavyweight in hopes of triple-champ glory ended tragically on Sunday when Ciryl Gane dealt him one of the toughest defeats of his career. The second-round knockout in the co-main event of the UFC Freedom 250 not only ended his bid for the interim heavyweight gold but also raised questions about his future in the division. But from his perspective, part of the blame, he believes, lies with referee Herb Dean and the other with Ciryl Gane. In a recently uploaded clip on social media, the former two-division UFC champion accused the Frenchman of landing illegal strikes to the back of his head and slammed Dean for failing to take action.

“I think if it weren’t for those punches, I wouldn’t be in that situation,” Pereira explained in his native Portuguese. “When the jab landed, I fell and grabbed his legs. Throwing elbows and punches, the guy was desperate. He landed a punch that he couldn’t even believe, and then he wanted to end the fight no matter what. The ref was there watching. The guy sees it’s an illegal hit, but he’s there thinking, ‘Bro, how can I stop this fight?’ Man, it’s the regulations. It’s in the rulebook.

“You’re wrong if you don’t stop [the illegal strikes]. That’s in the rules. What makes me more upset is that I warned him beforehand. But the guy doesn’t have the guts. He’s not a real man.”

As Alex Pereira noted, in MMA, strikes to the back of the head (often called rabbit punches) are explicitly illegal and strictly prohibited. And the Brazilian had already raised concerns about Ciryl Gane‘s tendency for fouls before the fight even took place. During UFC media day, a few days before their fight, the 38-year-old had asked the Frenchman to “keep it clean” when they fight. Despite this, another one of Gane’s bout has found itself in the centre of a controversy.

After dropping Pereira with a sharp jab in the second round, Gane swarmed him with punches and elbows, several of which appeared to land on the back of the former light heavyweight champion’s head. Following the stoppage, many claimed that Gane had landed illegal strikes on Alex Pereira.

Even Tom Aspinall, who watched the bout live from his home, questioned what he was seeing and remarked, “They look very illegal. What is going on?” The reigning heavyweight champion is currently sidelined after suffering an eye poke against Gane at UFC 321 that required surgery. However, this is not the first time the Frenchman has faced criticism for illegal strikes to the back of an opponent’s head.

Back in 2020, Gane landed controversial elbows during his fight against Junior dos Santos, prompting the former heavyweight champion to label him a “dirty fighter” and claim that Gane had landed illegal strikes to the back of his head. As a result, some fans felt Pereira’s complaints were not entirely without merit following the fight.

After posting the video, Pereira followed it up by sharing photos of the back of his head, showing visible bruising from the strikes. The Brazilian also posted multiple Instagram stories urging Dana White to take action against Herb Dean for failing to enforce the rules during the finishing sequence.

“Dana White, you should set an example with him, as it’s done with fighters when they ruin the image of this organization,” Pereira stated in an Instagram story.

“This will only change when the fighters fight to remove the referee who makes these kinds of mistakes,” Pereira said in another Instagram story. “Let’s prevent this from happening to you! We have the strength to do it! I guarantee it.”

The UFC cannot directly fire or hire referees because officials, unlike fighters, are not under contract with the promotion. They are rather independent contractors licensed and assigned by local state athletic commissions. However, in cases where the UFC finds it a genuine case of bad officiating, the promotion can formally ask a commission not to assign a specific referee to their events.

Regardless, this is far from the first time veteran referee Herb Dean has come under fire this year. He faced scrutiny following the stoppage in the UFC 325 bout between Benoit Saint Denis and Dan Hooker, which prompted Jorge Masvidal to label him “the worst referee.” Dean also received heavy criticism over the MVP MMA 1 bout between Adriano Moraes and Phumi Nkuta. The controversy prompted him to address it publicly as well.

This time too, after Alex Pereira raised the issue, the resulting controversy has forced Herb Dean to issue a clarification of why he decided not to act regarding the supposed shots to the back of Pereira’s head.

Herb Dean clarifies his stance after Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane controversy

After Alex Pereira questioned Herb Dean’s officiating standards, the veteran UFC referee took to social media to address the controversy. Dean explained that a strike is only considered an illegal blow to the back of the head when it lands directly on the occipital junction, the area at the base of the skull where the occipital bone meets the cervical spine.

“I could tell by some of the comments online that I owe you guys an explanation about the rules and how I refereed the fight,” Dean said in a video. “The rule we’re talking about is the back of the head, and that’s confusing because it’s different from boxing. The way we enforce this rule is by focusing on the nape of the neck, and that’s really what the rule should be called. The nape of the neck, or occipital junction, also covers the spine. It covers a line right here, with a one-inch variance on either side. So, right here. This is what we’d go over in a rules meeting. I would let them know that this area is a foul and off-limits, while this area (surrounding it) is a fair blow.

“Here is a fair blow. Turn to the side so we can see it here. Here is a fair blow. Here is a foul. Hopefully that’s useful to you guys and clears things up. Also, I’m going to make another video telling the story of the history of this rule and how it was made. I think that might explain why this is here, because I think it’s more about politics. But I think it’s an interesting story.”

While Herb Dean certainly explained what constitutes an illegal strike to the back of the head, he did not address Pereira’s comments about him. Meanwhile, Dana White is yet to speak on the issue as of the time of writing. It’ll be interesting to see where this controversy goes from here and what outcome it results in.