Herb Dean’s performance in the UFC 306 main event did not go unnoticed by Aljamain Sterling.
The main event of UFC 306 on Sept. 14 at the Sphere in Las Vegas between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili got off to a strange start, but it wasn’t necessarily Dean’s fault: Dvalishvili abruptly quit within the opening seconds and frantically pointed at O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, in his corner.
Dean issued a stern warning to Dvalishvili for stopping the bout himself, while Welch, who has a history of shouting instructions to O’Malley’s opponents, was also warned for excessive coaching, but as the match progressed Dean’s repeated interference began to attract attention, including from the commentators.
Despite Dvalishvili’s uneven grappling, Dean inexplicably continued to demand more action, threatening to stand up as “The Machine” kept moving relentlessly. Like most in the MMA world, Sterling felt Dean intervened more than necessary in the main event of UFC 306. Sterling noted that historically, more inactive exchanges have been tolerated, even when perhaps referee intervention would have been appropriate.
“I think he definitely interjected a little more than he should have,” Sterling told Submission Radio. “Merab got the takedown, he landed the knees, he landed the punches. [Dean’s] “Like, ‘Go for it or I’m going to take you out.’ It was very confusing. I’ve seen a lot of grappling scenarios but I’ve never heard a referee be so vocal. In other fights, there were more situations where the referee should have stepped in and said something a bit more. I don’t think Merab’s fight was like that in any position. So it was like a political debate with one guy fighting two hosts and his opponent.”
Dvalishvili then earned a dominant unanimous decision victory over O’Malley, avenging Sterling’s title loss to “Sugar” by knockout at last year’s UFC 292. Sterling then moved up to featherweight and won a unanimous decision in his debut against Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 in April of this year. The former bantamweight champion is scheduled to face unbeaten Russian contender Movsar Evloev on October 5 at UFC 307 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
