13 Facts About Herb Dean

At UFC 48, held on June 19,2004, Herb Dean refereed a bout between Tim Sylvia and Frank Mir for the vacant UFC Heavyweight Championship.

At 0:50 of round one, Herb Dean called a stop to the fight when he saw Sylvia's right forearm break due to an armbar.

Sylvia later admitted that he knew his arm was broken and wanted to keep fighting in spite of that, but he thanked Herb Dean for saving his career by ending the fight when he did.

At UFC 61, held on July 8,2006, Herb Dean served as referee of the highly anticipated rematch between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock.

At 1:18 into the first round, Herb Dean stepped in and stopped the fight following several consecutive unanswered elbows to the head of Shamrock by Ortiz, giving the victory to Ortiz by TKO.

At UFC 70, held on April 21,2007, Herb Dean was the referee during the bout between Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga.

Late in the first round, Herb Dean stood the fight up from the guard position, a measure typically used against inactivity.

Herb Dean quickly freed the pinned foot which helped prevent serious injury.

Herb Dean added that after Dean's stoppage of the Mir vs Sylvia fight he never questions Dean.

At UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs Oleinik, Dean was heavily criticized for a late stoppage during his refereeing of a fight between Khalid Murtazaliev and C B Dollaway.

At UFC 235, Herb Dean was criticized by UFC president Dana White after he awarded a win to Ben Askren via bulldog choke against Robbie Lawler.

At UFC on ESPN: Whittaker vs Till, Dean received more criticism for his late stoppage of a fight between Francisco Trinaldo and Jai Herbert, and got into an altercation with UFC commentator and former fighter Dan Hardy over the stoppage.

Herb Dean has won Fighters Only Magazine's World MMA Awards Referee of the Year in 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2018,2019 and 2021.