Following his controversial loss against Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250, Alex Pereira has repeatedly criticized Herb Dean for allowing illegal shots to the back of his head during the finishing sequence in the second round of their fight. Frustrated, the Brazilian even threatened to appeal the decision and urged the promotion to cut the veteran referee for poor officiating. Since then, many questions surrounding Pereira’s stance have been looming. But according to Alexander Volkanovski, ‘Poatan’s’ position in this case makes sense. 

Speaking on his YouTube channel, the UFC featherweight champion broke down the sequence and explained why he believed the veteran referee should have intervened much earlier.

“This is going to happen,” Volkanovski said. “We’re fighters. You hurt someone, you go for the finish. This stuff’s going to happen because you’re trying to go for the finish, and you’re just, you know, you’re going for it. I’m not saying that he did it on purpose, but I felt like the refs, maybe, you know, Herb, you know, I love you, mate, but I feel like you should have been pretty vocal. ‘Watch the back of the head.’

“I remember looking and seeing a couple of them, and he wasn’t. And I’m like, he’s not even telling him to watch the back of the head. I’m like, what’s going on here, type thing? But that’s how many shots to the back of the head were happening, that I would have seen a couple, then looked at the ref to see if he was even saying anything. Oh, he’s not even saying anything. Looking back, man, he’s still going. I kept looking back. Like, well, I’m talking. There was a decent amount of time with a lot of shots to the back of the head.”

For Volkanovski, the biggest issue wasn’t necessarily that Ciryl Gane intended to land those illegal back-of-the-head strikes. Instead, the featherweight champion implied that Herb Dean’s failure to issue any visible warning seemingly allowed the Frenchman to land a few more punishing shots that ended the fight.

During the fight, after a knockdown, Gane unleashed a barrage of elbows to the Brazilian’s head while Pereira desperately attempted to recover from the knockdown. However, the veteran referee did not appear to verbally alert the Frenchman to the foul he was committing amid the chaos of the high-stakes action. Without any warning, Gane continued to let his hands go and repeatedly targeted the back of Pereira’s head with his elbows and fists.

Interestingly, Dana White also pointed out something similar during the UFC Vegas 119 post-fight press conference, saying Dean should’ve at least tried to call out the fouls, if not entirely stop the bout. However, the UFC head honcho had a far more measured reaction compared to Jorge Masvidal, who called Dean “the worst referee in MMA.”

Volkanovski took the argument a step further and suggested that those shots may have directly impacted Alex Pereira’s ability to recover.

Alexander Volkanovski believes the illegal shots derailed Alex Pereira’s recovery

One of the main complaints Alex Pereira had regarding the illegal strike saga was that the Brazilian legend believed he would have recovered after Gane knocked him down with a jab. In his first response after the loss, ‘Poatan’ claimed that the fight could’ve played out differently if the illegal strikes hadn’t delayed his recovery. At first, Pereira’s take was met with plenty of skepticism. But upon closer inspection, many, including Alexander Volkanovski, believe there is some substance behind Pereira’s claim.

“I’m not taking it away from Gane,” ‘The Great’ added in his video. “I feel like maybe if Herb was saying, ‘Watch the back of the head,’ he would have maybe thought, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize I was hitting him there,’ and maybe he would think, or he would try better to get around. Could there be a different outcome if you hurt Pereira? Because he was obviously doing the right stuff to recover. So he was on his way to recover until there were a lot of other shots.

“And I explained where I thought those shots were landing. Then he was getting wobbled and wobbled. And you get direct contact on the brain like this, so that’s going to be hard to recover from. So it’s a tricky one, man. I don’t want to throw shade on people. But, I mean, there were a lot of shots to the back of the head.”

Though Volkanovski didn’t explicitly say that Pereira would’ve turned around the fight against Gane, still, he at least believes the former two-division UFC champion was on the right track to recover. But beyond that, Pereira’s past performances have also shown his ability to recover from adversity and still emerge victorious. Israel Adesanya wobbled Pereira in the first round, before the Brazilian rallied to secure a late finish in their middleweight clash at UFC 281.

At UFC 307, Khalil Rountree also dropped the former champion before Pereira regained control and secured a fourth-round stoppage victory. So, Alex Pereira’s belief that he could have recovered against Gane likely stems from previous experiences where he overcame similar moments of danger.

With Alexander Volkanovski now publicly backing Alex Pereira’s stance, the controversy surrounding Herb Dean’s officiating has only grown bigger. As of now, Pereira has even considered stepping away from the sport, hinting at a possible retirement. But with the conversation now gaining momentum, it will be interesting to see what steps the UFC and the commission take to address the issue.