Dan Hardy calls for referee accountability after Herb Dean's controversial refereeing at UFC Fight Island 3

Dan Hardy found himself in the middle of a brewing storm after he reprimanded Herb Dean after the controversial stoppage at the Francisco Trinaldo vs Jai Herbert fight at UFC Fight Island 3. Dan Hardy and fellow Co-commentator Paul Felder yelled on air to stop the fight after the initial knockdown but Herb Dean let Trinaldo land four more punches before stopping the fight.

Dan Hardy did an hour-long live stream on his YouTube channel as he refuted most of Herb Dean’s defense on the controversial refereeing which took place. While Dan Hardy would agree with Dean that his screaming didn’t help matters, Hardy said that was an automatic reaction to seeing a fighter get unwanted additional blows when he was in no state to defend himself.

Dan Hardy also dissected several of Herb Dean’s previous controversial performances as a referee but clarified that he doesn’t want to make things personal with Dean. The former UFC fighter turned analyst instead stressed he wanted awareness from the fans regarding such issues and called for more accountability from referees in MMA.

“He’s a good referee. He made a mistake here. The issue is not with Herb. The issue is with not taking accountability for mistakes. These are circumstances where someone needs to have a conversation with the referee when this happens. I don’t know what the process is. I don’t know if there’s a process. If there is, someone please enlighten me, because these are moments where peers of the referee should say, ‘Look, this was a bad stoppage, and this is why you need to recognize it.’ Because if the ref doesn’t recognize it as a bad stoppage, there is no reason why it wouldn’t continue to happen. Accountability is important, because we learn from them. If I didn’t learn from the (Carlos) Condit knockout, I’d still be getting knocked out with left hooks.”