TLDR
- Henry Cejudo called for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to remove Herb Dean from refereeing after his performance at UFC 332
- Dean has faced multiple controversies in 2026, including failing to stop an illegal knee at Contender Series and issues at the UFC White House event
- Sean O’Malley accused Cejudo of jealousy after Cejudo suggested Payton Talbott should fight O’Malley next
- O’Malley denied ducking opponents, pointing to recent fights against Dvalishvili, Sterling, and Yan
- Dean is now regularly booed by fans when announced as referee, despite once being considered a gold standard in the profession
Sources: mmafighting.com | mmasucka.com
Former UFC champion Henry Cejudo has called for longtime referee Herb Dean to be removed from his position by athletic commissions. Cejudo made the comments on his Pound 4 Pound podcast following another controversial performance by Dean at UFC 332.
Dean stopped the fight between Esteban Ribovics and King Green after Green was knocked down for the third time in the bout. Green immediately protested the stoppage, though he did not argue strongly against the decision.
🚨Henry Cejudo wants AI Judging in the UFC.
🗣“We gotta get AI to start doing this shit, a bunch of fvcking old people judging”
📽 @pound4poundshow pic.twitter.com/XI4olEpdJq
— FightLuck (@FightluckBet) October 5, 2026
UFC CEO Dana White said afterward that Dean is “having a rough f*cking year” but thought the stoppage was acceptable. Cejudo disagreed with that assessment.
Cejudo Says Dean Needs to Step Aside
“It’s ridiculous that the Nevada State Athletic Commission, that he still even has a job, in my opinion,” Cejudo said. “Nobody likes this dude no more. They show him on camera, he’s getting booed.”
Dean once was considered one of the best referees in mixed martial arts. Now he regularly receives boos from fans when announced as the referee for a fight.
Cejudo pointed to multiple incidents from 2026 that have drawn criticism. Dean refereed the UFC White House fight between Ciryl Gane and Alex Pereira, where many fans believed Gane landed several illegal blows to the back of the head.
Just one week before UFC 332, Dean failed to intervene when Ian Escuza landed an illegal knee to the head of grounded opponent Luca Borando at Dana White’s Contender Series. After using replay review, Dean and other officials allowed Escuza’s win to stand, saying the illegal strike did not affect the fight’s outcome.
“That dude gets f*cking kneed to the f*cking head, and this dude doesn’t have the balls,” Cejudo said about the incident. “You should have stopped it right then when he got kneed. That fight would have been a No Contest.”
Cejudo said Dean needs to “take a break from fighting” and “step aside” from his refereeing duties.
O’Malley Accuses Cejudo of Jealousy
In separate comments, Sean O’Malley responded to Cejudo’s latest criticism of him. Cejudo recently suggested that rising fighter Payton Talbott should fight O’Malley next after Talbott knocked out Deivison Figueiredo at UFC 332.
Cejudo has argued that O’Malley is being protected by the UFC and that Talbott deserves top competition. He also claimed Talbott has been ignored for a year despite his winning streak.
O’Malley told MMA Guru that Cejudo has a pattern of making these predictions. “Every time anyone ever beats him in a fight, he goes, ‘Oh, they’re going to fuck Sean up, dude!'” O’Malley said.
The former bantamweight champion said Cejudo did the same thing with Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili after they beat Cejudo. “I don’t get it either. But you know what they say: jealousy is not a good thing,” O’Malley added.
O’Malley also denied accusations that he is avoiding tough opponents. He pointed out that four of his last seven fights came against three of the greatest bantamweights in history.
“4 out of last 7 fights have been against 3 of the greatest bantamweights of all time. Ain’t duckin no one,” O’Malley said. His recent opponents have included Merab Dvalishvili, Aljamain Sterling, Petr Yan, Marlon Vera, and Song Yadong.
Talbott called out O’Malley after his win at UFC 332, telling him to stop running and give fans the fight they want. Daniel Cormier has also called for the matchup between Talbott and O’Malley to be made.
