Alex Pereira was already frustrated with Herb Dean’s controversial officiating of his fight with Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250, which saw him suffer a brutal second-round TKO loss to the Frenchman. Now, the former two-division champion is completely livid after the promotion decided to axe his compatriot from the roster over what he sees as the veteran referee’s repeated officiating mistakes.

According to the latest update, the UFC has cut Brazilian middleweight Michel Pereira following his controversial loss to Shara Magomedov at UFC Baku in late June. On the surface, the promotion axing ‘Demolidor’ after he lost four of his last five fights makes complete sense. However, the way in which his last fight went has led Alex Pereira to contend that UFC shouldn’t have cut Michel, especially over what he argued was bad officiating on Herb Dean’s part, which ultimately influenced the outcome of the fight.

“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!” ‘Poatan’ wrote on his 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. My kickboxing record is 40 fights: 33 wins and 7 losses. My MMA record is 16 fights: 13 wins and 3 losses. My Vale Tudo record is 1 fight and 1 loss.”

UFC indeed has no control over who officiates their fights. That decision is controlled by the state athletic commissions, which decides the officiating roster for a particular event. However, the UFC has in the past blacklisted referees from officiating their events. The promotion famously vowed never to use referee Vyacheslav Kiselev on their cards after his controversial officiating of the UFC 267 bout between Benoît Saint-Denis and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos in 2021. The fight became infamous for Kiselev’s failure to stop the bout during a severe beating that BSD suffered at the hands of Santos, which prompted the UFC to pull Kiselev from the remainder of the event. Kiselev has never officiated another UFC event to date. However, with Herb Dean, they are yet to be as proactive.

As Alex Pereira pointed out, he understands that the UFC is parting ways with Michel Pereira because of his string of losses. However, the Brazilian legend also isn’t wrong to point out that ‘Demolidor’s last UFC fight became a point of contention due to referee Herb Dean’s officiating, which had already raised plenty of eyebrows. 

During the UFC Baku co-main event clash, Shara Magomedov committed multiple fouls that affected Pereira. The Russian pulled the Brazilian fighter’s hair twice during the showdown and later landed an eye poke. Although Dean warned ‘Bullet,’ he didn’t officially deduct a point despite Shara fouling on multiple occasions. As a result, when the fight went to the scorecards, Shara won the bout via unanimous decision. Had a point been deducted, the result would have likely tilted in Pereira’s direction, something that enraged Poatan.

Especially since the controversial bout happened just a couple of weeks after his own disastrous outing at UFC Freedom 250, Alex Pereira wasted no time in blasting Dean and calling him a “coward” on social media. Since then, he has remained adamant that Dean should be removed from officiating duties.

He had even threatened legal action after the veteran referee’s failure to prevent the back-of-the-head shots Ciryl Gane landed on him during their fight. And after the UFC Baku fiasco, Pereira received support from voices like Alexander Volkanovski and Henry Cejudo, both of whom agreed Dean did a poor job officiating both fights. However, they aren’t the only ones.

Ex-UFC heavyweight blasts Herb Dean over recent questionable officiating

Looking at Herb Dean’s recent string of disputable officiating, former UFC heavyweight fighter Brendan Schaub called out the veteran referee. ‘Big Brown’ believes the longtime official is somehow afraid to take a point away from a fighter after they commit a fight-altering foul.

“When he issued the statement or when he showed the video after the Poatan fight, I’m like, ‘Well, this ain’t good.’ Then you have the fight after that with our boy Fili, which is pretty evident, now it’s a common theme,” Schaub said on the Big Brown Breakdown show. “It’s not happening to all referees, it’s happening to Herb Dean. This is three in a row. At some point, you have to insert yourself, and I just don’t understand, why are you so scared to take a point? Why are you so scared?”

Beyond the UFC White House event, Herb Dean again came under fire for not calling the back-of-the-head shots during the UFC Vegas 119 fight. Andre Fili, who absorbed those strikes, voiced his frustration right after the fight ended. Following that incident, the longtime referee once again found himself at the center of controversy at UFC Baku. 

With all of these instances piling up, Schaub thought it was time to publicly call Dean out. However, more recently, referee Jason Herzog deducted a point for an illegal knee at UFC 329, a decision many fans believe Dean would have let slide. And that shows how the aversion against Dean is growing among the fans as well.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Herb Dean has faced his fair share of criticism throughout his tenure as a referee. However, this time the backlash appears to be far more intense, with several prominent voices publicly questioning his officiating. So, it will be interesting to see whether the athletic commission finally steps in or not.