Embattled mixed martial arts referee Herb Dean was defended by legendary MMA official John McCarthy in the wake of UFC Freedom 250.

In the co-main event of the UFC White House card, Ciryl Gane defeated Alex Pereira via TKO to win the interim UFC heavyweight title.

But the finish was controversial, as Pereira is upset that he believes Gane landed illegal strikes to the back of his head that helped lead to the finish.

Dean has defended himself, posting a video on his social media channels demonstrating that the blows were legal.

But Pereira is still extremely angry at him and has sworn that Dean will never officiate his fights ever again.

McCarthy, though, is sticking by his fellow MMA official.

John McCarthy Defends Herb Dean

McCarthy, who is arguably the most well-known and respected referee in MMA history, spoke to MMA Junkie Radio in the wake of UFC Freedom 250 and defended Dean, while further explaining the back-of-the-head rule in MMA.

“I’m not saying that Alex possibly didn’t get hit to the back of the head. But when you’re looking at it in real time and being in a position that Herb Dean was in, I have a fighter who’s in what we call a finishing sequence based upon he had hurt Alex with a good shot, hurt him on the ground with a couple of shots, and they’re moving, and Herb decides that none of those are in the position of – and I can’t say that Herb saw all of them because you don’t see everything as you’re trying to move with the fighters. Some of it you see, there’s things you might not see as far as the exact area based upon what side you’re on and what side you’re going after,” McCarthy said.

“So, Alex works himself out of that position, and he gets himself back to his feet. I’m not saying they didn’t hurt him. I’m sure they all hurt him, but he was tough enough and good enough to get himself back to his feet to get back into the fight where he was going to be at least more successful. Herb decided that nothing (he) saw is going to make (him) take Ciryl Gane and stop him, and either remove the position as the lesser of evil or remove the position and take points based upon what (he) saw as far as the shots (Gane) was landing because a lot of it he was looking at was body’s in motion. Alex was moving some, too, which was creating some of those off-target strikes.”

Alex Pereira Not Appealing TKO Loss After All

Originally, Pereira said that he was planning on appealing his TKO loss to Gane. However, after thinking it over, the Brazilian will not be appealing the stoppage.

The odds of an appeal being successful were extremely low, anyway, so it would have been a waste of time for Pereira to appeal it.

If Pereira wants his rematch with Gane — and he’s confirmed he’s staying at heavyweight going forward — then the best course of action is to go out there and win another fight or two over the top heavyweight contenders and prove that he’s worthy of another title shot.

Pereira is upset about the way his UFC White House fight ended, and understandably so. But if he truly believes he’s the best heavyweight in the world, then he needs to go out there and show it, instead of going on a media tour blaming Dean for the loss, which is what’s been happening so far.