Herb Dean reacts to Joe Rogan’s criticism at UFC 306: ‘I’m looking for effort to finish the fight’

Herb Dean wants to have a conversation with Joe Rogan, and the rest of the UFC 306 broadcast team after the UFC’s event at Sphere.

The veteran referee was the third man in the octagon for the main event between new bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley. In the closing rounds, Dean repeatedly told Dvalishvili to work more on the ground while in top position. Rogan called Dean’s tactics “insane,” and was quite critical of Dean down the stretch. While speaking on JAXXON Podcast, Dean reacted to the situation, and knew when he started getting negative comments flung his way on social media it came from commentary criticism.

“I’m not sure if I totally understand that myself,” Dean said. “I think the analysts who started it — and I don’t want to be critiquing those guys, or have an adversarial relationship because, first of all, they say a lot of good things about me, and they have over the years.

“I would like to talk to them... the commentators. I can tell it was the commentators before I even heard that it was because on social media, I was getting a lot of the same thing. ... I see a bunch of grown men saying somebody else’s opinion, must’ve been something the analysts said, and it was.”

Dvalishvili ultimately won the fight, and the title via unanimous decision in a bout that the MMA community won’t have on their Fight of the Year lists. Dean was also part of a couple of other strange moments in the bout — including Dvalishvili yelling at O’Malley’s head coach Tim Welch seconds into the contest, along with telling Dvalishvili to stop kissing O’Malley’s back prior to the end of a round.

But it was Rogan’s comments from the commentary booth, more so, that got Dean most of the negative attention after UFC 306.

“They’re saying that I shouldn’t be telling the guys to work,” Dean explained. “This is something I’ve always done. Our sport, there’s rules that are there for safety. There’s rules that are there for fairness, we have rules that are there to build our sport. To make our sport what it’s supposed to be. To make our sport more exciting. ...

“Most of the coaches can say my pre-fight instructions with me because I say the same thing. I tell them about things we have problems with. Most of them know the rules... but to this stuff, two things that are the most important things before I intervene: The biggest intervention is when I’m going to start your fight. So you always hear me say, ‘Fight back. Fight back.’ That lets them know so it’s not a surprise to them. ... The next thing I’m going to say is, I’m going to say ‘work.’ And that means that I’m about to take your position away. Because in this sport we have position, and a position can lead to a fight being finished, but when I say ‘work,’ that means what I’m looking for is not just busy work, I’m looking for effort to finish the fight.

“Instead a bunch of [tapping] punches, where you could do a full five-minute round with this and not change, I’m expecting you to posture, throw bigger shots. Instead of trying to hold on, I’m expending you to spend energy advancing position, passing guard, or if you’re up against the fence, putting energy into a takedown. Something that’s going to bring the fight to a conclusion.”

For newer fans learning the nuances of the wild sport that is MMA, Dean lays it out as simple as possible as to why he issues warnings for these types of scenarios.

“If you have a superior position, if you’re not using it to win the fight, you’re using it to hide from your opponent to burn time,” Dean said. “That’s not what we want our sport to look like, I don’t think.”