Cejudo slams Herb Dean after UFC 332 stoppage

Henry Cejudo questions Herb Dean after another controversial call

Cejudo slams Herb Dean after UFC 332 stoppage

UFC legend Henry Cejudo has sharply criticized MMA referee Herb Dean and suggested that hardly anyone likes him, after Dean once again made a highly controversial decision.

Dean has already made several questionable decisions this year. The most recent one was likely at the UFC 332 event between King Green and Esteban Ribovics.

Esteban Ribovics sent his opponent to the ground three times, at which point Dean stepped into the ring and stopped the fight. King Green immediately protested the decision, as he wanted to continue fighting until the end.

On the “Pound-for-Pound” podcast, Henry spoke about it in more detail and said:

“Speaking of robbery, your boy Errb Dean — I wanna call him Herb Dean, but it’s more like Errb Dean — that dude has just been (expletive). It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous, the Nevada State Athletic Commission, that he still even has a job, in my opinion. Like nobody likes this dude no more. Nobody. They show him on camera, he’s getting booed. It’s ridiculous, dude. No accountability, man, whatsoever, bro. It’s a (expletive) mafia”

And he’s probably right about that in some ways. 2026 wasn’t an easy year for Dean, as he’d already been linked to such incidents several times. Take UFC Freedom 250, for example, where he missed the chance to penalize Ciryl Gane for strikes to the back of Alex Pereira’s head. But the problem here also lies partly with the community. When referees make mistakes, they’ll always be saddled with that image, even if the subsequent fights were perhaps well-refereed. Of course, they’re then under pressure and anxious about making another wrong call, and that’s exactly when it happens. You can criticize referees, but not so harshly every single time after just one mistake, because then it won’t get any better. What do you think?

I think referees are often treated too harshly, and people don’t take into account that they’re under pressure, too. With a statement like that, Henry is just putting more pressure on them, which I don’t think is good. What do you think?