Not only did Dan Hardy trash Herb Dean on air, for stopping the Francisco Trinaldo – Jai Herbert fighter sooner, but the analyst could also be heard confronting the respected ref. Following the event, ‘The Outlaw’ shared out a statement, in which Hardy explained his actions.
Hardy notes mistakes by refs leave “people vulnerable”
Dean oversaw the Trinaldo – Herbert bout, which took place on the prelims for UFC Fight Island 3. In the third round of the thrilling bout, Trinaldo sent Herbert crashing to the deck with a huge punch.
Although Herbert fell to the floor very awkwardly and stiff, Dean allowed the fight continue, when even Trinaldo hesitated to throw anymore punches. After the lightweight did so – since Dean hadn’t stopped the bout – finally, the fight was called.
Hardy had already screamed at Dean to stop the bout, as had fellow UFC commentator, Paul Felder. Then, moments later, Hardy could be heard blasting Dean further, away from his mic.
It was one of the night’s big stories, no question, and after the card, Hardy shared out this comment.
I love Mixed Martial Arts. Sometimes it doesn’t love me back though, and that’s alright. Regardless, I’ll always do everything in my power to protect it, and those dedicating themselves to it.
Sometimes you may disagree with me, and that’s alright as well. I’m always going to speak my mind, and it will always be backed by what I feel in my heart.
If you understand what it takes to get in there, then you understand my passion and anger when I see a fighter left unprotected. It isn’t the first time it’s happened, and twice in a night is clear negligence, in my opinion.
The referees job is more important than any other person in that building. It is on their shoulders to protect fighters from getting seriously hurt when they are unable to protect themselves.
You may just see UFC fighters in there, but I see friends, teammates, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, competing in the sport that they love.
When I make a mistake, I look stupid on live TV. When a referee makes a mistake, people are left vulnerable and can be seriously damaged. That can be life-changing, and we all have someone to go home to, that loves us and wants us back in one piece.
Thank you for all of the kind words and messages I’ve received. I am truly grateful. I’ll see you all around
Hard to argue with anything Hardy said here. It should be noted that Dean is widely respected as one of the best officials in the game.
But, the respected ref had a bad night. Big time. He also oversaw the Tanner Boser-Raphael Pessoa bout and let that continue on for several moments, even after it was clear Pessoa wasn’t coming back from Boser’s assault in round two.
UFC’s VP David Shaw comments on the situation
After the event, UFC’s senior vice president David Shaw was not surprisingly, asked to comment on what transpired. Shaw confirmed the organization is going to look into what transpired between Hardy and Dean (quotes via MMA Junkie).
“I wasn’t on the floor when it happened. I did hear some of the comments on the broadcast. Here’s the thing, being a ref in MMA is one of the hardest roles that you can have, and Herb Dean is one of our best, categorically.
(The) bottom line is, health and safety of the athletes is of paramount importance. On the other side, you’ve got a guy like Hardy who, very successful MMA career, an excellent analyst right now, but he’s passionate and he’s fiery.
“The important thing for us to do is to try and get a handle and try to get an understanding of what actually happened.
Obviously, this is not something that you address with either one of the parties during the show. These guys have a job to do and so we certainly don’t want to disrupt their efforts to do an excellent job, as we expect they always will.
So we’ll go back, we’ll check it out, try to get a better understanding of what happened and really take it from there.”
UFC Fight Island 3 took place on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
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