Jorge Masvidal never wants veteran UFC referee Herb Dean to oversee any of his fights again.
Masvidal is not a fan of Dean, who is one of the most well-respected referees in MMA, and has accused the referee of having an agenda against him. Dean has overseen several of Masvidal's fights during his UFC career, including his last two outings against Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman.
'Gamebred' thinks Dean doesn't like him and that it shows when he referees one of his fights. “I’m not a fan of Herb Dean, man, I’ll tell you that much,” Masvidal said on The MMA Hour.
"We’ve had a couple of problems and the Donald Cerrone [fight] was one of them. Jake Ellenberger, as well. I just don’t think I’m his cup of tea and he kind of takes it out on me when he’s refereeing."
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Back in 2017, Masvidal seemingly knocked out Cerrone twice in their fight but Dean did not stop the fight after 'Cowboy' was badly hurt at the end of the first round. Masvidal also had a bizarre stoppage win over Ellenberger the previous year as his foot got caught in the cage.
Masvidal said that in his past fight against bitter rival Covington in March, a low blow went unpunished from Dean. Masvidal recognises that the illegal strike wouldn't have changed the result of his decision loss, but feels Dean should have taken further action than warning Covington.
“He’s done some things that I’m like, it’s kind of weird," Masvidal continued. "[Covington] clearly throws a low blow – that I’m not saying this changes the outcome – but clearly he throws a low blow that’s intentional, and Herb doesn’t do anything about it, just gives him a little warning. I don’t know. I hope that as long as I compete, Herb Dean never referees a fight of mine or judges it."
In the main event of UFC Vegas 56 between Alexander Volkov and Jairzinho Rozenstruik last weekend, Dean was at the centre of controversy. Rozenstruik was badly hurt by Volkov but seemed to be getting back to his feet after being dropped, but Dean stepped in to stop the fight.
If Masvidal is to compete in the UFC’s home state of Nevada again, he will be able to request a hearing for Dean to not oversee his respective fight. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones did so with John McCarthy as he believed the referee had treated him unfairly.
