Aljamain Sterling can’t believe the decision Herb Dean made at Saturday’s MVP MMA: Rousey vs. Carano event—and that he won’t face any repercussions for it.
One of the biggest talking points coming out of the Rousey vs. Carano preliminary card was Phumi Nkuta’s submission loss to Adriano Moraes. In the closing seconds of their fight, Moraes had Nkuta in a rear-naked choke, but it appeared the final bell rang before Moraes could finish the submission. However, Moraes held on to the choke and Nkuta briefly passed out, leading to an official review of whether Nkuta had actually lost consciousness before the bell.
It was eventually ruled that Nkuta was out prior to time running out on the bout and Moraes was awarded a submission victory. That sequence of events doesn’t sit well with Sterling, a training partner of Nkuta’s.
“Herb Dean, awful, awful referee,” Sterling said on The Weekly Scraps. “I’m tired of these people coping, saying ‘the gold standard.’ … Herb Dean is a good dude. I’m not going to say he’s a bad person because he’s a bad ref. But he’s a bad ref. He’s a bad ref.
“I know it’s not an easy job, but when you consistently mess up like that, it’s rough. It’s hard for someone to keep constantly trying to back you.”
The Moraes vs. Nkuta bout was closely contested, but the official scorecard showed that Nkuta was up 20-18 on two cards heading into Round 3, meaning even if Moraes had won the final round, Nkuta would have won a split decision. Due to Dean’s call, the judges were removed from the equation.
Dean was not solely responsible for the ruling as he reviewed the footage of ending of the fight alongside members of the New Jersey athletic commission, including fellow referee Mike Beltran. It should be noted Dean and Beltran have been involved in several officiating controversies in recent years and in the eyes of Sterling, this was just the latest debacle involving the veteran referees.
“They all converse in a circle like a little hut, I’m watching these guys, it’s like ‘The Five Stooges,’” Sterling said. “You guys mean to tell me not one of you understands jiu-jitsu and how chokes work? Adriano Moraes held on to the choke after the bell at minimum two seconds. Squeezing. Herb’s trying to pull him off and you’re telling me you think he went out before the bell?
“So it took five of you guys, the five amigos to sit around the TV replay after replay and you guys cannot see and Herb being in there couldn’t tell his one arm was trapped. The other one was trying to fight the hands. He was moving before the bell was up. Not moving after the bell when Adriano finally decided to let go. That should have been a disqualification just there.”
Sterling isn’t just frustrated with Dean, but with the system that protects him and other ineffective officials from facing any consequences. He believes that were it not for Dean being so firmly entrenched in the officiating fraternity, there could be methods to punish him and also potentially bring in fresh faces better equipped to handle high-level fights.
“You have politics, everything for some reason, it’s just a good old boys club where you get in and once you’re in, it’s almost impossible to get you out,” Sterling said. “It’s almost like joining the union or if you get tenure in the school system out here. You’ve just got to work, not doing anything crazy for two, three years, and once you get tenure, you can just be the worst and they’re going to back you and protect you. And I love that, but it gets to a certain point where you can’t protect someone anymore.
“I’m not calling for Herb Dean to get fired, but there should be a review. He should get demoted to lower levels of competition. These are big stakes, events, and careers that we’re talking about, and there’s got to be some better people that are working their way up that haven’t gotten a shot yet or some people that are a bit more knowledgeable.”
