What belt is Jason Herzog?

One of the best active MMA referees, Jason Herzog, has refereed over 922 bouts as of May 2024, including 293 KO/TKOs, 222 submissions, 383 decisions, 6 ties, 12 no contests, and 6 disqualifications. He also has a master's degree in engineering and works for a defense contractor as well.

He began with smaller promotions and later worked with promotions like UFC, Bellator, ONE, or PFL events. A Twitter poll asking MMA fans who they thought was the best referee in the sport was posted in 2022. A lot of the commenters said that Jason Herzog was possibly the best MMA referee in the business.

His most notable fights include Anthony Smith vs. Glover Teixeira, Paulo Costa vs. Marvin Vettori, Conor McGregor vs. Dusin Poirier III, Israel Adesanya vs. Jan Blachowicz, and Brandon Moreno vs. Deiveson Figueiredo 1.

Obviously, he had his share of controversies as well; in Smith vs. Teixeira, he was criticized for not stopping the fight earlier, as he stepped in after five rounds. By that time, Smith's orbital bone and a few teeth were broken.

Jason Herzog’s Belt

Jason Herzog is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from his local academy, the JFLO Grappling Academy, which is led by Olympic Judo coach Justin Flores. As a referee, Herzog has gained greater respect for his commitment to grappling training.

As per JFLO's website, Herzog gave his testimonial for his coach, Justin, prasing his teaching techniques and explaining that his system's effective integration with various grappling disciplines is one of its main advantages. He further added that learning Judo and wrestling foundations would improve fighters's submission techniques.

What was Jason Herzog’s feud with Paulo Costa?

Paulo Costa, a middleweight contender in the UFC, gave Herzog the most well-publicized criticism during UFC Fight Night 196 in October 2021. Jason covered the bout between Costa and Marvin Vettori, in which Borrachinha lost a point due to an eye poke. Paulo was upset by this choice and said it caused him to lose the fight.

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Paulo would refer to Herzog as "a son of a b**** with bad intentions" on Twitter. Costa was not alone in the MMA community in believing that their eye poke wasn't worth a deduction. However, many did not think Herzog was biased against Costa.