Herb Dean Booed at UFC Fight Night as Missed Foul Sparks Fresh Fan Backlash
Herb Dean heard the Oklahoma City crowd loudly boo him during Saturday’s UFC Fight Night, and a disputed sequence in the co-main event soon gave frustrated fans another reason to focus on the veteran referee. Christian Leroy Duncan beat Jared Cannonier by unanimous decision, but an apparent illegal follow-up against a grounded Cannonier went unaddressed in round two.
Dean was the assigned official for Duncan vs. Cannonier at the Paycom Center. Duncan won 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 after three rounds, a result that marked the biggest UFC win of his career over the former middleweight title challenger.
Herb Dean Controversy Grows After No Call in Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Jared Cannonier
Early in the second round, Duncan knocked Cannonier off balance with a spinning kick. As Cannonier hit the canvas, Duncan launched a follow-up knee; footage and contemporaneous reports differ over how cleanly it landed, with one account saying the shin connected and another saying the knee did not land cleanly.
Under the Unified Rules, kicks or knees to the head of a grounded opponent are fouls, while the referee has discretion to stop action, warn the fighter, deduct a point, or impose a more serious sanction based on the foul and its effect. Judges cannot independently subtract a point for an uncalled foul.
Herb Dean neither halted the fight nor issued a visible warning or deduction, allowing the action to continue. Duncan ultimately took the decision without a penalty on the official scorecards.
The moment drew quick attention online, particularly because Cannonier was down and vulnerable when Duncan threw the strike. A referee can decide a glancing or missed blow does not warrant a stoppage, but the lack of any apparent review or instruction left fans arguing about both the contact and the response.
The White House Debacle
The boos did not arrive in a vacuum. Dean has been at the center of a high-profile refereeing dispute since Alex Pereira’s June loss to Ciryl Gane, when Pereira said Gane landed illegal shots to the back of his head during the finishing exchange.
Pereira said the shots prevented him from recovering and called for accountability, later saying he was concerned about returning to competition amid the officiating issue. He also said he did not want Dean assigned to officiate his fights again.
Dean publicly defended his handling of the Gane-Pereira sequence, arguing the disputed blows fell outside the prohibited target area under his interpretation of the rule. Veteran referee John McCarthy also defended Dean’s call, saying the strikes were legal, which shows the earlier incident remains a matter of real disagreement rather than a settled officiating error.
Former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo has been among those calling for referees to be more willing to deduct points when fighters commit fouls. He argued that athletes can lose purses and opportunities while officials face far less public accountability.
Saturday’s Duncan-Cannonier moment adds a separate case to that conversation, even if its precise impact remains disputed. Dean has handled major MMA fights for years, but each missed or controversial foul now gets replayed through the lens of the Pereira uproar, and the Oklahoma City crowd made clear it has noticed.
