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Former MMA referee 'Big' John McCarthy recently weighed in on the controversy surrounding Herb Dean and his actions during the Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill fight at UFC 300 last weekend.
For context, Pereira and Hill faced off in a light heavyweight title fight in the UFC 300 headliner. In the opening round, one of Hill's kicks caught Pereira in the groin and prompted the referee to momentarily intervene. While referees usually grant fighters time to gather themselves in such situations, 'Poatan' didn't want to pause.
Pereira waved Dean away and proceeded to drop Hill to the canvas with his signature left hook. He followed up with some hard ground-and-pound shots before the referee stepped in to stop the contest. In the aftermath, many suggested Dean's actions were uncalled for and caused Hill to lose focus, alleging that it led to Hill getting caught by Pereira's left hand and ultimately losing the title fight.
However, McCarthy recently took to X to defend Dean against unwarranted criticism:
"It is inherently bad for the sport and unbelievably embarrassing to hear people who supposedly know the sport of MMA smear the actions of @HerbDeanMMA as if he was responsible for the knockout of @JamahalH at UFC 300... The fighter who is fouled by a strike to the groin is in control of how much time they need to take to sufficiently recover from the foul... Everything Herb Dean did was exactly what we would train any official to do under the same circumstances."
Daniel Cormier shares take on Herb Dean potentially causing Jamahal Hill's UFC 300 knockout loss
Daniel Cormier recently weighed in on the controversy surrounding Herb Dean's actions during the Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill fight at UFC 300. The former two-division champion revealed that he spoke to 'Sweet Dreams' after the fight and saw the knockout sequence in a different light.
'DC' pointed out that Dean should have separated the two fighters more and maintained a bigger gap during the brief pause before allowing the fight to restart. Speaking to Ben Askren via his official YouTube channel, Cormier said:
"Jamahal Hill and I had a conversation yesterday, we’re talking about the fight and how it played out... When an illegal strike happens, they separate the athletes, they come back together, and then the fight restarts. Whereas in that moment, it felt like Alex said, ‘I’ve got my timing, I’ve got my foot placement,’ he went and landed – but they feel like they were much closer than they should have been.”
Catch Daniel Cormier's comments below (2:14):
