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Fight Opinion Radio: Herb Dean answers your questions on MMA officiating & fan criticism
By Zach Arnold | May 12, 2014
Herb Dean is a winner in life and on Twitter (@HerbDeanMMA)
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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.
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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 |
Oh wow.
You got Herb.
All the refs seem to be doing a decent job these days,
but Herbs still my fave.
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.
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/From-Legend-to-Punchline-The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Tito-Ortiz-67743
You mean this article? Let’s talk about the general theme of it.
Compare his record since the re-match with Chuck versus what happened to Chuck after that fight. They both went downhill on a similar trajectory, but Chuck is now loved by the public and is doing TV commercials while many people are dumping on Tito and underestimating his value in the history of the UFC boom. In short, Chuck is getting all the love while Tito is the guy everyone unfairly dumps all over and gives no respect to.
“However, the ridicule has gone overboard.”
Did you miss that line in the article?
Oh, you didn’t hear? Tito was always mildly garbage.
Great interview.