Charles Oliveira rips Herb Dean over UFC Freedom 250 officiating

Charles Oliveira has become the latest fighter to call out Herb Dean's officiating, this time over the referee's handling of Ciryl Gane's finish of Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250.

The former lightweight champion and current BMF titleholder told MMA Fighting that Dean failed to address illegal strikes Gane landed to the back of Pereira's head during their co-main event. "Poatan reacted the right way [after the knockdown], going for the legs to defend," Oliveira said. "Then, in the middle of that chaos—not because he's Brazilian, but the whole world saw it and it was obvious—some shots landed to the back of the head when they shouldn't have."

Oliveira compares controversy to own title fight

Oliveira drew a comparison to his UFC 262 championship bout against Michael Chandler, claiming similar fouls went unaddressed. He questioned whether his career trajectory would have remained intact had Dean stopped that contest early. "If I had lost to Michael Chandler that night, if the referee had stopped the fight, would my career have continued with the same momentum?" he said.

The Brazilian put the responsibility squarely on the official. "I think there's a referee there to understand what's right and what's wrong, whether it's time to stop the action or not," Oliveira added. "I put all the responsibility on the referee, just like I did with the referee in my fight."

Henry Cejudo, Jorge Masvidal and Dominick Cruz have also gone public with criticism of Dean's work, while Pereira has posted multiple times on social media expressing frustration with how the fight unfolded. Gane claimed the heavyweight title with the controversial stoppage.

Original reporting:

• sherdog.com — UFC referee firestorm grows as Charles Oliveira targets Herb Dean