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Fight Opinion Radio: Herb Dean answers your questions on MMA officiating & fan criticism

By Zach Arnold | May 12, 2014

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Herb Dean is a winner in life and on Twitter (@HerbDeanMMA)

Download the show

RIGHT HERE: (http://www.fightopinion.com/podcasts/foradio-5-12-2014.mp3).

Subscribe automatically to Fight Opinion Radio: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fightopinionradio.

Time length of this week’s show: 39 minutes (18 MB MP3)

Show preview

Herb Dean (official web site here) just finished his yearly referee training camp & worked the main event of the UFC Cincinnati fight between Matt Brown & Erick Silva. The man has a lot going on right now, but he stopped by Fight Opinion Radio to address many questions that fans would ask a famous MMA referee if they had the chance to do so.

How does a referee in an ultrahazardous sport avoid getting severely injured? Big John McCarthy is on the mend after suffering a knee injury from working at UFC’s Orlando card last month. It’s a surprise referees don’t get injured more often during fights.

Does being a former or current MMA fighter automatically make you a better referee? How do you read the poker-faces of fighters who often hide injuries? What is a worse dilemma for a referee: an early stoppage or a late stoppage? What kind of tape study is involved in preparing to officiate a big fight?

How do you avoid suffering from the rabbit ears caused by fan & writer criticism(s)? How do you deal with fighters who try to influence stoppages by egging on referees to stop fights? Why are the standards between referees for standing up fighters for inactivity on the ground so wildly different? How does a famous MMA referee avoid the pitfalls from potential conflicts of interests? How do you avoid playing favorites?

Pretty much everything we could ask, we asked Herb. And it was a great interview. Worth a listen… even for our number one listener.

Contact us

Get a hold of us by messaging Judge Jeff on Twitter (@whaledog) and Zach on Twitter (@fightopinion).

Our e-mail address: [email protected].

Special thanks

To Zack Nelson for his past & present support of Fight Opinion Radio. A mad genius.

Topics: Fight Opinion Radio, Jeff Thaler, Media, MMA, podcasts, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

5 Responses to “Fight Opinion Radio: Herb Dean answers your questions on MMA officiating & fan criticism”

  1. rst says:

    Oh wow.
    You got Herb.

    All the refs seem to be doing a decent job these days,
    but Herbs still my fave.

  2. Nepal says:

    Zack, the hatchet job you wrote about Tito on the Sherdog web site was over the top. You have a personal beef with him? That was just unnecessary.

  3. klown says:

    Great interview.

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