Cejudo calls for Herb Dean's removal after string of controversial UFC stoppages in 2026

Former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo has publicly demanded that athletic commissions remove veteran referee Herb Dean from his post, pointing to what he describes as an unacceptable run of poor officiating decisions throughout 2026.

The flashpoint at UFC 332 came when Dean stopped the Esteban Ribovics vs. King Green bout after Green was knocked down for the third time. Green immediately disputed the call, appearing lucid and capable of defending himself at the moment of stoppage. UFC CEO Dana White acknowledged Dean is “having a rough f*cking year” but stopped short of condemning the specific intervention.

Cejudo was far less measured. Speaking on his Pound 4 Pound podcast, the former flyweight and bantamweight champion called out the Nevada State Athletic Commission directly.

“That dude has just been — fck, man. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous that the Nevada State Athletic Commission, that he still even has a job, in my opinion. Nobody likes this dude no more. Nobody! They show him on camera, he’s getting booed. It’s ridiculous. No accountability whatsoever. It’s a fcking mafia.”

Dean, once widely regarded as one of the sport’s premier referees, has become a polarising figure in 2026. He was at the centre of controversy during the UFC White House main event between Ciryl Gane and Alex Pereira, a fight in which many observers accused Gane of landing repeated blows to the back of the head without intervention.

More recently, Dean drew criticism at a Contender Series event when he failed to immediately halt the bout after Ian Escuza landed a blatantly illegal knee to the head of a grounded Luca Borando. Following a replay review, Dean and the officiating team allowed Escuza’s victory to stand on the grounds that the illegal strike did not affect the outcome — a ruling that sparked widespread backlash from fighters, fans, and media.

It was that incident, Cejudo said, that crystallised his frustration.

“You should have stopped it right then when he got kneed,” Cejudo said. “That fight would have been a No Contest, and that dude would have not gotten that. The Poatan — it’s just endless, dude. I think he just needs to take a break from fighting. That’s all. He needs to step aside.”

Cejudo did concede, when pressed by co-host Kamaru Usman, that officiating is a genuinely difficult job and that referees must sometimes override a fighter’s own instinct for self-preservation. But he maintained that the accumulation of errors in Dean’s 2026 record goes beyond the ordinary margin of error expected in a high-pressure role.