Henry Cejudo Says Herb Dean Should Lose His Job After UFC 332
Henry Cejudo wants Herb Dean off UFC cards, and he said the Nevada State Athletic Commission should not still be giving him work. He made the case on Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru Usman, a day after Dean stopped King Green against Esteban Ribovics at UFC 332.
Ribovics dropped Green three times in the first round on Saturday at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, and Dean waved it off. Green was still conscious, protested immediately, and later said he had asked Dean to let him go out on his shield. Dana White called it another rough stretch for the referee.
Cejudo did not treat the stoppage as a one-night argument. “That dude has just been f*cked, man,” he said. “It’s ridiculous that the Nevada State Athletic Commission, that he still even has a job, in my opinion.”
He said the room has already turned. “Nobody likes this dude no more,” Cejudo said. “They show him on camera, he’s getting booed. No accountability, man, whatsoever, bro. It’s a f*cking mafia.”
Usman cut in before the commission line could sit. “What you said was ridiculous,” Usman said. “Science can’t do, AI can’t do all that.”
He rejected the idea that a machine would call fights better. “First of all, we’re fighting. This is not baseball,” Usman said. “AI’s not gonna do a better job.”
The former welterweight champion then defended the third man in the cage. “That’s why there’s a third guy in there. It’s at his call. It’s at his discretion,” Usman said. “If you put yourself in a vulnerable position to where you give him a reason to potentially stop it, it’s very difficult to be upset later.”
He put the job in plain terms. “His job in there is to potentially try to protect you from taking brain damage,” Usman said. Green had been dropped three times in a row, which is the fact Usman was standing on.
Cejudo said he understood the point, then moved the complaint. “I’m not so mad at this one. Maybe I am just picking on Herb Dean,” he said. “The last time at the Contender Series last week with that dude gets f*cking knee to the f*cking head.”
That fight was Dana White’s Contender Series on Sept. 29 at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas. Ian Escuza stopped Luca Borando in 32 seconds, and the finish included a knee while Borando still had a knee on the canvas. Dean and the commission reviewed it and let the knockout stand. White later said Dean had f*cked up. Escuza still received a UFC contract.
Cejudo wanted that bout wiped. “He should have stopped it right there when he got hit. That fight would have been a no contest,” he said. “I think he just needs to take a break. He needs to step aside tomorrow.”
Usman heard the retirement demand and laughed at the timing. “Why you just woke up today and chose real violence?” he asked. The exchange left the two former champions on opposite sides of the same referee.
Dean is still working. The Green stoppage is the latest call under review in public, and the Contender Series knee is the one Cejudo says should have changed a result. Neither the UFC nor the Nevada commission has pulled him, which is the part Cejudo called a lack of accountability. The next card he is assigned will be the answer to whether that criticism changes anything.
