The UFC has been one of the few Sporting organisations that has been running events despite of the Covid crisis. Saturday night saw the last in a series of Fight Cards hosted in ‘UFC Fight Island’ on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Despite a night of stellar action the main talking point out of the weekend’s event was the controversial ending to a prelim fight between Francisco Trinaldo and Jai Herbert
Trinaldo vs Jai Herbert prelim
It was in the third round of a competitive fight that Herbert was probably edging when Trinaldo caught the Brit with an overhead left that scrambled Herbert’s senses and sent him crashing to the floor.
Trinaldo, rushed over to Herbert then paused, seemingly reluctant to finish his opponent off. The referee Herb Dean, ran towards the fighters and stopped waiting to see what would happen next. Herbert lay on his back with his hands paralysed in space.
It was a moment of confusion, was the fight over? Not according to Herb Dean. Trinaldo proceeded to rain down punches on Herbert upon which commentator Dan Hardy shouted at Herb Dean to ‘Stop the fight’.
After three or four unanswered blows, Dean called the fight off.
Dean vs Hardy: face-off
After the fight there were harsh worse exchanged between Hardy and Dean:
Dean lands a jab
Herb Dean came out on Instagram to defend himself, and in which he (in a round about way) chastised Hardy for yelling stop the fight:
Hardy responds with patented left hook
Last night Hardy posted an hour long deep dive into the issue of Dean and bad stoppages:
The verdict
Whilst there is some really good analysis Hardy and it is hard to argue that to stoppage wasn't late, I think the problem is less of a 'Herb Dean' issue than a cultural one.
In MMA, the backlash of stopping a fight too early is greater than stopping it too late. That’s why refs, doctors, and corners let fights go on too long.
We’ve seen many so-called ‘great fights’ that mainly consisted of a fighters shipping a tremendous amount of punishment, long after the fight ceased to be competitive (Ferguson/ Gaethe, Smith/ Texeira, Nunes/ Spencer, Aldo/ Yan just to mention a few recent high profile events).
Thus referees are biased towards letting a fight go on longer.
It is what we've come to expect.
It is only the lack of audience noise sanitisation, that has brought a sharp focus on the brutality of the violence.
We all (fans, fighters, coaches, promoters, officials) need to take responsibility for what we are willing to see beyond the confines of a competitive fight.
The referee cannot be a scapegoat for our paradoxic desire to see a fighter 'go home safely' and a fighter 'go out on their shield.'
If a referee, like Herb Dean (regarded by many as the best in the business) faces this much public criticism for letting a fight go 3 or 4 seconds onger than it probably should have, who would be a referee?