Ciryl Gane did nothing wrong, so says referee Herb Dean.
This past Sunday, Dean refereed the interim heavyweight title fight between Gane and Alex Pereira that served as the co-main event of UFC White House, where Gane finished Pereira in the second round. Unlike his fight with Tom Aspinall, there were no eye-poke issues for Gane, but the bout was not without controversy, as after dropping Pereira, Gane unleashed a flurry of punches, with many appearing to land in the illegal area at the back of the head.
But Dean, of course, disagrees. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Dean responded to the various criticisms of his refereeing that fight, explaining that Pereira has it wrong: Gane’s strikes were above board.
“The White House card was amazing. I can’t imagine a way that it could have been better,” Dean said. “I can tell by some of the comments online that I owe you guys an explanation about the rules and how I refereed the fight.
“First of all, all respect to both fighters. I’m talking about Gane and Pereira. Amazing fight. OK, so let’s get into it with this rule.
“The rule we’re talking about is the back of the head [rule], and that’s confusing, because it’s different than boxing. The way we enforce this rule is we focus on the nape of the neck. And that’s really what the rule should be called. The nape of the neck, or occipital junction, covers the spine and covers a line, right here, with one-inch variance to either side. So, this is what we go over in the rules meeting. I will let them know that this area [holding his and over the nape of the neck] is a foul. Off limits. This area [punches the side and back of the head] is a fair blow. Here [punches the other rear side of the head] is a fair blow. …
“Here [over and behind the ear] is a fair blow, here [to the back of the neck] is a foul. Hopefully that’s useful to you guys, and clears things up.”
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