Officiating has been a hot topic throughout the MMA world since Alex Pereira suffered a second-round knockout loss to Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250 at the White House. In the aftermath of the now-controversial finish, Pereira has campaigned vigoriously for referee Herb Dean’s removal from the sport.
Veteran referee “Big” John McCarthy, however, doesn’t believe the backlash is justified. Pereira’s main complaint pointed to the nature of several Gane strikes, which he believes illegally landed on the back of his head. Dean responded to the claims with an explanatory video outlining what constitutes the illegal back-of-the-head zone. Speaking on Tuesday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show,” McCarthy reaffirmed that Dean’s explanation and citation of the “two-inch” strip surface area was accurate.
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“Not one of those was an illegal shot,” McCarthy told Uncrowned. “That is not an illegal elbow to the back of the head. That is a legal shot right there, because that would be hitting right where it’s even past the crown of the head. So that’s a legal shot, the back of the head.
“Here’s the problem — we have all these different commissions, we have different groups, we have different people. And when the unified rules was put together, I made it as open as I could with what was occurring at the time, as far as what the back of the head is. We were coming into the world of boxing — the commissions were very comfortable with the boxing world. They were not comfortable with MMA. So they wanted to go with headphones, which is boxing — that is what the back of the head is. Medically speaking, they’re right — it’s what the back of the head is. But boxing is a 180-degree sport, meaning we cut that boxer like the headphones straight down, and straight down the sides and at the waist. That’s your legal areas. You can’t touch their back, you can’t do anything. MMA is a completely different sport. MMA is a 360-degree sport.
“Let’s go back to the early days, there was no back of the head, OK?” McCarthy continued. “They were allowed to hit everywhere that was possible. We didn’t have any complaints. We didn’t have people getting hit and going, ‘Oh, oh my God.’ They knew they could be hit. Now, again, when you believe that you can’t be hit somewhere, and you get hit there right away, it’s an attention-getter. And you’re thinking, ‘Hey, you can’t hit me there.’ So I’m not blaming the fighter in any way. But the back of the head starts at the crown of the head — that is meaning that all of this on top, all of this is good.”
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The controversy raised by Pereira has not only put a target on Dean’s performance as a referee, but also added fuel to accusations that Gane is a dirty fighter. Before their White House clash, Gane saw his prior title fight with Tom Aspinall end in a no-contest last October after accidental eye-pokes from Gane rendered Aspinall unable to continue.
When examining this latest fight, McCarthy admits a couple of Gane elbows appeared to land illegally, but not all of them. Overall, he doesn’t believe Gane meant to attack the back of the head.
As for Dean, McCarthy noted times when Dean intervened appropriately and why we don’t see him do so as often as would be expected.
Alex Pereira (bottom) has been on a warpath over Herb Dean’s handling of the Ciryl Gane fight.
(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)
“Is there times when Herb possibly could take a point, and he doesn’t? Sure, absolutely,” McCarthy said. “But there’s times that I can look at and say, alright, let’s look at Cody Garbrandt vs. [Xiao Long]. How many points did he take? Two. On two different occasions. You had a groin shot that occurred, he didn’t take points. He gave a warning. Then you have another one that occurs shortly thereafter, and Cody’s down for a while. He takes a point, then they come together, and he has another groin strike, and he takes another point. So there are times that I can point out Herb has been absolutely on top of things and he’ll take points.
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“I’m going to say this straight out: Herb Dean is a friend of mine. I love Herb. Herb is one of the nicest human beings that you will ever find. And the one thing I will say is he doesn’t want to interfere with the fight. He doesn’t. And I don’t. No referee does. The greatest fight I can have is a fight where someone goes, ‘Who was the referee of that one?’ Perfect, because that means that I didn’t have to really get involved. I didn’t have to do a whole lot. I got to move around in there and just see things. If I had to say something, I said something to someone, but no one knew about it, really. So it was clean and easy.
“Those fights happen,” he continued. “Many times, they don’t, and you have to involve and bring yourself into the equation of it. But no referee should ever want to be the difference-maker in the fight. We want the fighters to settle that.”
Whether it’s judging or refereeing, officials are highly prone to criticism. When that criticism comes in abundance over a short window, it tends to give the appearance as if changes are never being made and the state of MMA officiating is at an all-time low.
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McCarthy views the shifts in the media landscape throughout the years as a big reason for that. Nothing will ever be perfect, so with that in mind, there will always be necessary adjustments to make, he said.
“There’s always going to be stuff we’ll have to fix and clean up,” McCarthy said. “I tell people all the time, look, we’re human. I don’t care who you are as an official — you’re going make mistakes. The sport is too fast. There’s too many things going on to sit there and say, ‘Oh, you’ll never make a mistake.’ You’re going to make mistakes.
“Right now, it’s not so much the media. Media has changed so much as far as — Ariel, you’re the media. You’re actual media. The fans have become media through social media. And they have the right to say whatever they want, they have the right to their opinion. All of that is fine. But at this moment, they are good at attacking officials over the slightest thing that happens. And I call it the flavor of the week or month, because they had a score someone didn’t like or made a call someone didn’t like, so you’re going to be that flavor of the week or month.
“Are the fans in a position to want perfection? Sure, they are,” McCarthy added. “Do we want perfection? Yes, we do. Is it possible? Not in every fight. I’m just being honest. We try. But that’s part of when I’m instructing people or talking with my peers, it’s, ‘Hey, be honest about if you could have done something better. What is it? What could you have done that made this better?’ We’re never going to be exactly what everybody wants.”
