UFC color commentator Dan Hardy doesn’t believe referee Herb Dean is taking accountability for what many felt was a late stoppage at UFC on ESPN 14.
There was a bit of a verbal spat between Hardy and Dean during the UFC on ESPN 14 broadcast. This was due to Hardy’s reaction over the stoppage to Francisco Trinaldo vs. Jai Herbert. Trinaldo dropped Herbert with a punch but rather than stop the fight immediately, Dean allowed “Massaranduba” to land some shots before stopping the fight. Hardy yelled out “stop the fight” as he felt Herbert was out of it.
Dan Hardy Responds To Herb Dean Saying It Wasn’t Late Stoppage
Dean has since responded to the criticisms with his own scolding of Hardy, without saying his name. The referee also said he didn’t stop Trinaldo vs. Herbert late. During a live stream on Full Reptile, Hardy responded to Dean (via MMAJunkie).
“He’s a good referee,” Hardy said. “He made a mistake here. The issue is not with Herb. The issue is with not taking accountability for mistakes. These are circumstances where someone needs to have a conversation with the referee when this happens.
“I don’t know what the process is. I don’t know if there’s a process. If there is, someone please enlighten me, because these are moments where peers of the referee should say, ‘Look, this was a bad stoppage, and this is why you need to recognize it.’ Because if the ref doesn’t recognize it as a bad stoppage, there is no reason why it wouldn’t continue to happen. Accountability is important, because we learn from them. If I didn’t learn from the (Carlos) Condit knockout, I’d still be getting knocked out with left hooks.”
UFC senior vice president David Shaw confirmed that the UFC is looking into the incident between Hardy and Dean. Shaw noted that the two weren’t talked to over the spat during the event as they felt it would’ve interfered with the work of Hardy and Dean.
