Herb Dean under fire after multiple fouls mar UFC Baku

Herb Dean took heavy criticism for his officiating at UFC Baku, where multiple unchecked fouls allowed Shara Magomedov to edge Michel Pereira on the cards despite what MMA Mania described as intentional rule-breaking.

The trouble started in the first round when Pereira dropped Magomedov with a counter right and moved to finish from guard. As Pereira landed punches and elbows, the Russian grabbed his hair to control posture and avoid damage. Dean stopped the action and issued a warning — giving Magomedov time to recover — but took no point. A blatant eye poke in the third round drew another warning and nothing more, even after replay showed the foul clearly.

Why Dean's non-action changed the outcome

Pereira lost 28-29 on all three scorecards. Had Dean deducted a single point for either the hair pull or the eye poke, the bout would have ended in a draw. "Magomedov intentionally cheated in the first round to help avoid being finished, as there's never been an accidental hair pull," MMA Mania's Andrew Richardson wrote. "The third-round eye poke certainly looked intentional."

The event also featured a questionable early stoppage in the opener, where hometown fighter Tahir Abdullayev was awarded a ground-and-pound TKO over Jefferson Nascimento for shots that reportedly did not land particularly hard. Marc Goddard drew scrutiny as well for a late intervention in Nursulton Ruziboev's rear-naked choke of Andrey Pulyaev, which left the Russian unconscious.

Richardson noted that he could write a similar piece after every UFC card but rations them to avoid redundancy. Despite talk of stiffer regulations, he wrote, there has been no significant change. UFC Baku took place June 27 at the National Gymnastics Arena in Azerbaijan.

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• MMA Mania — UFC Baku, The Morning After: Fouls galore as Herb Dean drops the ball yet again