Issue 109

December 2013

The history of mixed martial arts retold through the pages from FO’s archives

Issue 21

DEAN OF THE MEAN

Back when acclaimed referee Herb Dean was MMA’s biggest villain

At the end of 2006, referee Herb Dean’s name was leaving a bitter taste in MMA fans’ mouths. Instead of being recognized as a quality official, as he is now, he was being bashed for what was popularly deemed a premature stoppage of the bad-blood clash between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock. So controversial was his call, a 78-second TKO loss for Shamrock, the crowd, already booing heavily, even threw bottles at the veteran third man. Just four years later he was being showered with silverware at the Fighters Only Awards.

But back then, it was all different. Not only was UFC 61’s Ortiz vs. Shamrock II main attraction the rematch in a feud that had begun back in 1999 (seeping into the mainstream in the process), their July 2006 battle was the climax of season three of reality series The Ultimate Fighter. The anticipation was immense.

And so was the vitriol when Dean stopped such a longed-for scrap just 1:18 in, after Shamrock’s head absorbed a burst of Ortiz’s heavy elbows with ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ inside his open guard. Shamrock wasn’t defending them, but nor was his body showing any signs of losing communication with his brain. And when a lucid Ken, who’d lost the pair’s previous fight, leaped up from the canvas immediately afterward he berated Herb for ending it. Commission inspectors, cornermen and security members poured into the Octagon to settle and separate both worked-up fighters. It was pandemonium.

In spite of the disdain for his call, Dean’s mind was still made up when he spoke with Fighters Only at the end of that same year. “I feel I made the right decision from the beginning,” he told us exclusively in issue 21. “I thought about it – nobody wants to get bottles thrown at them – but what could I do, let Ken get hurt so people aren’t throwing bottles at me? I can’t think of a reason to let that fight go on any longer. I’d seen that he’d taken five or six elbows; I saw that he was not going to stop the next elbow – he was taking those elbows because he was unable to stop them. I saw no reason to let him take another one, so I stopped it. The fans weren’t happy with it; they wanted to see more of a fight. I really wanted to see more of a fight too but I can’t help that.”

As the years went by, Herb’s continued top-notch adjudicating in the ring repaired his reputation. UFC president Dana White even gave him a glowing reference in July 2010.

He told the press: “I’ve seen Herb Dean make some of the most critical calls in the sport. I mean, I could go through a list of film where this guy has seen and pulled off stuff… Not only is he the best referee, he’s the best referee ever in mixed martial arts.”

At the Fighters Only World MMA Awards a few months later Dean picked up his first silver statuette for ‘Referee of the Year’. He did the same 12 months later, and then again at the fifth Fighters Only Awards in 2013.

MMA fans do forgive and forget – eventually

NOSTRADAMMAUS:

BRIDE OF CHUCKY

Just prior to Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz’s big-money rematch at UFC 66 in December 2006, two FO pundits debated who would win. One siding for Chuck (who took three rounds to collect the TKO win), the other for Tito. In a demonstration of how on the ball we’ve always been, even our pro Ortiz writer struggled to work out a way his man could take the contest.

Elsewhere in the issue

WOMAN’S WORLD

This isn’t the first time we’ve told you, but we’ve been covering women’s MMA since way before everyone else. The same was true in issue 21 where we even uncovered the world of unsanctioned barroom fight nights where women would regularly glove up and throw down for no money and no fame.

GUILTY PARTY

Our lead news story in issue 21 was the failed drug tests of Vitor Belfort, Kevin Randleman and Pawel Nastula following Pride 32 in Las Vegas. Belfort is still feeling the sting of that result, which he blamed on an over-the-counter supplement. But the Nevada commission’s suspicion the positive may have been due to steroid use, combined with his present testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), has led commission head Keith Kizer to doubt he would be allowed to use TRT in his state these days.

HALFWAY THERE

Former Pride champion Wanderlei Silva is looking at the final few years of his career these days, and it’s likely he’ll focus on running his gym in Las Vegas when he does finally hang up the gloves. Which is remarkably close to what the ‘Axe Murderer’ predicted in issue 21 in 2006 – that he would open a training center in Los Angeles where he would “be able to pass through my experiences to my pupils.” Several miles off, but partway right.