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UFC will investigate the cage side conflict between their color commentator Dan Hardy and veteran MMA referee Herb Dean, according to UFC’s Senior vice president Dave Shaw. The incident took place during the UFC on ESPN 14 card after the Francisco Trinaldo vs Jai Herbert fight.
Shaw in the post-fight press conference said that serious conversations will take place back in Las Vegas following Dan Hardy’s outburst during the broadcast at referee Herb Dean. The two would then exchange heated words cage side with Hardy deeming the fight as late stoppage.
Hardy and his UFC Co-commentator Paul Felder felt that the veteran MMA referee should have done better during Trinaldo’s win over Herbert. Herb Dean asked both fighters to continue fighting, even after Herbert appeared dazed by a powerful punch from Trinaldo, which drew the ire from those at the commentary booth.
Hardy and Felder were vocal in their opinion that Herb Dean should have stopped the fight, and even Trinaldo hesitated a bit before landing four more unanswered blows before Herb Dean eventually stopped the fight. Hardy felt incensed by the decision-making of one of MMA’s finest referee’s and the Brit did not hold back his feelings against Herb Dean in the fight's aftermath.
The Senior Vice President of UFC, Dave Shaw had this to say about the incident when asked about it during the post-fight press conference.
“I wasn’t on the floor when it happened. I did hear some of the comments on the broadcast. Here’s the thing: Being a ref in MMA is one of the hardest roles that you can have, and Herb Dean is one of our best, categorically. (The) bottom line is, health and safety of the athletes is of paramount importance. On the other side, you’ve got a guy like Hardy who, very successful MMA career, an excellent analyst right now, but he’s passionate, and he’s fiery. The important thing for us to do is to try and get a handle and try to get an understanding of what actually happened. Obviously, this is not something that you address with either one of the parties during the show. These guys have a job to do, and so we certainly don’t want to disrupt their efforts to do an excellent job, as we expect they always will. So we’ll go back, we’ll check it out, try to get a better understanding of what happened and really take it from there.”- UFC Senior Vice President Dave Shaw on the Dan Hardy-Herb Dean conflict.
Shaw also hinted that Hardy had overstepped his boundaries by interacting with Herb Dean during the event. Shaw noted regulatory staffs are the only ones who can approach the referees during UFC events.
“I guess the bottom line is there’s one group of people that are able to talk to officials during the fight night, and that’s (Marc) Ratner’s regulatory group, and no one else,” Shaw said. “So we’ll see what happens next week when we get back to the office.”
