ABU DHABI – UFC Senior Vice President David Shaw revealed that the talks would take place at home in Las Vegas following Dan Hardy’s mid-air bang on referee Herb Dean and the subsequent exchange between the couple after the victory. by Francisco Trinaldo’s TKO about Jai Herbert in the UFC on ESPN 14.
Hardy and fellow comment colleague Paul Felder were clearly upset by Dean’s handling of the end of Trinaldo’s victory over rookie Herbert, after the fight was allowed to continue, despite Herbert appearing to be hit by a large blow of the Brazilian.
Both men were vocal in their calls for Dean to step in and stop the fight, while even Trinaldo paused to allow Dean to reject him, before continuing and landing four unanswered shots at the clearly scrambled Herbert before the bout that the referee intervened. .
Hardy was furious, and photos shared from the cage showed the former welterweight title challenger protesting with the officer after the fight before the English pulled himself together for the post-fight interview with Trinaldo.
When asked about the incident at the post-fight press conference, Shaw admitted: “He was not on the floor when it happened. I heard some of the comments on the broadcast. Here’s the thing, being a referee in MMA is one of the most difficult roles you can have, and Herb Dean is one of our best, categorically. (The) conclusion is that the health and safety of athletes is of utmost importance. On the other hand, you have a guy like Hardy who, with a very successful MMA career, an excellent analyst right now, but is passionate and hot.
“The important thing we must do is try to manage and try to understand what really happened. Obviously, this is not something you discuss with either party during the show. These guys have a job to do and so we certainly don’t want to interrupt their efforts to do a great job, as we hope they always do. So we will come back, we will review it, we will try to better understand what happened and we will really take it from there. ”
Hardy’s response generated words of support from UFC lead commentator Jon Anik, who tweeted: “Dan Hardy has always had my respect as one of the best MMA minds / analysts, but he deserves especially praise tonight. Analysts must be critical when they believe the situation requires it. I can not hold back. He did not do it. He’s not trying to make friends. “
But Shaw hinted that Hardy could have gotten off the line by interacting with Dean during the event, noting that officials should only be approached by regulatory staff during events.
“I think the bottom line is that there is a group of people who can speak to officials on the night of the fight, and that is (Marc) Ratner’s regulatory group, and no one else,” he clarified. “Then we’ll see what happens next week when we get back to the office.”
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