Herb Dean has been having a difficult couple of weeks, as the veteran referee finds himself in the center of a storm again. For the second time in less than six days, a high-profile fighter is blaming Dean for missing obvious, illegal strikes to the back of the head. This time, it’s veteran featherweight Andre Fili, who has spoken out following his second-round TKO loss to Vinicius Oliveira at UFC Vegas 119.

The drama occurred just at the end of the second round. ‘Lok Dog,’ who seemed to have injured his foot on a checked kick in the first, came out firing in the second, hurting Fili hard. As ‘Touchy’ leaned against the cage, Oliveira unleashed a flurry of standing elbows to finish the job. The issue? A couple of those elbows obviously slammed into the back of Andre Fili’s skull, leading to a nasty cut.

So, as expected, the veteran didn’t hide his frustration, but he kept it classy in a video posted to his Instagram stories.

“I’m very frustrated because it was an illegal shot that started the end of the fight for me,” Fili said. “Everything else before that was covering up; I was intelligently defending myself, I was firing back, I was weathering the storm, and I knew he’d be exhausted after that.

“I’m not especially happy that Herb let those go. I’m not especially happy that he let two or three of them go. But also, Herb has a tough job. Everyone in that cage has a tough job, and they’re doing their best. At the end of the day, I shouldn’t have been in the position to get elbowed in the back of the head. It’s on me. I (expletive) up. I’m going to fix it. I’m going to come back better.”

Even though it is the first time in Andre Fili’s 35-year career that he has lost back-to-back fights, walking away with a $100,000 Fight of the Night bonus check just before Father’s Day certainly lessens the blow, as he looks forward to enjoying the occasion.

“It’s Father’s Day,” he added. “I’m going to sip this delicious coffee and thank God for this life that I have. I appreciate all of you guys, I love you, and I hope that you have a great day.”

While ‘Touchy’ is taking a more philosophical approach to his loss, former two-division champ Alex Pereira is out for blood.

NSAC steps in as Alex Pereira threatens legal war over Herb Dean’s refereeing

Last week, at UFC Freedom 250, ‘Poatan’ lost his interim heavyweight title fight to Ciryl Gane after getting dropped and struck with a barrage of downward elbows that appeared to connect directly to the back of his neck.

As a result, Alex Pereira is so enraged that he isn’t just appealing the loss; he is actually threatening to sue Herb Dean and has demanded that the referee never share a cage with him again.

“I had a long conversation with my manager last night,” Alex Pereira said. “We are going to pursue this legally. We’re going to talk to our lawyers. The bill is going to come from some people.

“I think everybody already had enough of Herb Dean,” he said. “We don’t know if he should even continue on the job at this point. He got comfortable, and he just keeps getting; every so often, there’s more and more stuff happening the same way with him… 100 percent (he won’t referee my fights again).”

Even Dana White is refusing to defend his veteran referee this time, claiming that the back-of-the-head shots were undeniable.

“If you watch the fight, it’s undeniable that he got hit with some strikes to the back of the head, but in the middle of the action, when it’s going on and guys are rolling around trying to get out of it,” the UFC CEO said at the UFC Vegas 119 post-event presser. “Sometimes the fouls happen.

“Maybe Dean should’ve said, ‘Watch the back of the head’ or warned him or something like that. But I don’t know. I can tell you this: Alex Pereira is not a whiner. And Alex Pereira doesn’t complain about things or make excuses after fights. So I have to believe that he believed that. That he truly believed that was true.”

All of this heat has officially prompted the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) to intervene.

“After his loss, Andre Fili complained to Herb Dean that the elbows were to the back of the head,” Alex Behunin of MMA Mania reported on X. “Herb checked Fili’s head and was showing him replays with the commission watching.”

This isn’t the first time the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) has had to investigate a controversial decision or claims of illegal strikes. Herb Dean has been at the center of a number of these over the years. Back in 2014, he caught some major heat for stopping Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber at UFC 169 a little too early, with even Dana White admitting he may have jumped the gun, though the result stayed the same and wasn’t overturned.

Then there was Ben Askren vs. Robbie Lawler at UFC 235, where replays had fans arguing Lawler was still awake when the veteran referee waved it off, but the commission didn’t change anything back then as well. The 55-year-old was also criticized in 2020 for allowing Francisco Trinaldo to take too many shots against Jai Herbert before finally intervening.

The commission evaluates these types of incidents all the time, but unless there is clear evidence that an illegal foul actually directly changed the fight and the rules were misapplied, overturning a result is pretty rare.

So, while the NSAC is reviewing the tape, no official point deductions or overturned results have been announced yet. But with the Alex Pereira situation, Andre Fili’s stoppage, and a list of other problematic calls this year, such as his severely criticized stoppage at the UFC 325 bout between Benoit Saint Denis and Dan Hooker, which prompted Jorge Masvidal to label him “the worst referee,” the pressure on Herb Dean is reaching an all-time high.

After more than 20 years as the gold standard for MMA officiating, fans and fighters alike are wondering if it’s time for the iconic referee to finally retire before his legacy gets completely tarnished right before our very eyes.