Veteran referee Herb Dean was set to officiate one of the most anticipated UFC main events of the year—until a last-minute decision changed everything.

According to another veteran MMA referee John McCarthy, Dean was scheduled to officiate the UFC 329 headliner between Conor McGregor and Max Holloway on July 11 before the Nevada State Athletic Commission unexpectedly decided to replace him with Mike Beltran. The longtime UFC referee stated that the late change was undertaken to shield Dean from mounting scrutiny following weeks of criticism, with Beltran stepping into an assignment he hadn’t originally been scheduled to work.

“Even the athletic commissions, you know, Herb [Deam] 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 on a recent episode of the Weighing In podcast. “They actually brought Mike Beltran in. Mike wasn’t scheduled to do that fight, and he ended up doing the Conor [McGregor] fight. That’s the athletic commission not punishing Herb but trying to take care of Herb.

“They’re trying to put him in a position to say, ‘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 fights right now. Just get through this event and let’s get things going in the right direction.'”

This suggests that understanding the gravity of the main event, they did not want to put Dean under more scrutiny than he was already in by placing him incharge of arguably the biggest fight of the year. At UFC 329, Herb Dean officiaated Cody Garbrandt vs. Adrian Yanez and Cory Sandhagen vs. Mario Bautista. Despite his reputation for refereeing the promotion’s biggest fights, he was noticeably absent from both the main and co-main event.

Usually a referee officiates anywhere between 3 and 6 fights per event. For UFC 329 he only had 2. This means that despite him being able to officiate a few more fights, the commission intentionally kept him out of the most high-profile bouts that weekend. And to be fair, it isn’t surprising considering the intense scrutiny the referee has been under lately for some very controversial officating.

His officiating has been under fire for several controversial decisions, including criticism from former UFC champion Alex Pereira following his UFC Freedom 250 loss against Ciryl Gane on June 14 and Michel Pereira‘s highly controversial loss to Shara Magomedov at UFC Baku on June 27.

Dean also received a frosty reception from fight fans in Las Vegas, with loud boos echoing inside the arena as he was introduced for his assignments at UFC 329.

Ironically, the main event he was supposed to referee ended almost immediately. Mike Beltran was in charge when Conor McGregor lost to Max Holloway by first-round TKO in 69 seconds, after the Irishman suffered a serious knee injury while attempting a jumping kick.

And now, even though Herb Dean has been one of the sport’s most criticized officials in recent weeks, ‘Big’ John McCarthy believes his longtime colleague deserves respect for how he has handled the massive backlash.

John McCarthy claims Herb Dean is responding the right way

Rather than ignoring the criticism, John McCarthy claimed that the veteran referee has been taking an honest look at his own officiating style and considering whether changes need to be made.

“Herb is doing the right thing,” McCarthy continued on the podcast. “He’s looking at the way he officiates. He’s looking at, ‘Are people starting to read that? You know what? I am a little lenient, and I don’t like to affect the fight. Maybe I’m going to start affecting the fight more.’

“He’s looking at all those things just like he should, and that’s just part of the growing process of being an official.”

McCarthy claims that this type of self-evaluation is exactly what veteran officials should do, as it is a natural part of continuing to evolve in their roles. However, fans believe he still managed to make a big blunder at UFC Oklahoma City this past Saturday.

All this change and introspection didn’t stop Alex Pereira from defending Michel Pereira either, who has since been cut by the UFC. ‘Poatan’ slammed the decision on social media, claiming that refereeing errors should never cost fighters their livelihood and that the sport suffers when officials fail to enforce the rules consistently.

“They could have sent this guy earlier, and maybe it would have been acceptable, but paying such a high price because of a refereeing mistake is impossible to accept!” he wrote on Instagram. “The UFC has already done, and continues to do, everything I ask within the organization’s reach. But it’s sad to see this and not be upset.

“Many athletes don’t say anything, but tomorrow it could be you going through this kind of situation, and there will be no point in sending me a message asking for help. It’s sad that not even the UFC has control over this, and because of that, our sport keeps being tarnished.”

Michel Pereira later thanked the former two-division champion for speaking out, while fellow Brazilian UFC fighters Johnny Walker and Caio Borralho urged the Dana White-led promotion to bring him back. Whether Herb Dean’s recent changes will put an end to criticism remains to be seen.

However, if John McCarthy is to be believed, both the referee and the Nevada State Athletic Commission appear focused on giving one of MMA’s most recognized referees the opportunity to work in the promotion while going through the difficult patch. But that doesn’t mean they would be thrusting him back into the sport’s spotlight anytime soon.