Herb Dean

Herb has refereed some of the most memorable fights in UFC/MMA history. Moving into his third decade of refereeing and regulating MMA, Herb has traveled extensively through out the world and has strong relationships with the MMA community in the US and worldwide. Herb Dean grew up in the Pasadena and the Los Angeles area, starting Martial Arts at a young age. He has competed in Kickboxing, MMA, Judo and Jiu Jitsu. I never met a fighter I didn’t like. The personalities of fighters are very diverse – from nice guys to “so called bad guys”, mild mannered to in your face intense personality types. This sport is not for the faint of heart, being an athlete is not enough, and there are very few people who have what it takes. Just the fact a fighter will get in the cage and put it all on the line earns my respect. Watching the very first match in UFC® 1 had the most impact for me. Back then, I could not believe that fighters from different styles were actually going to step into the cage and fight. Seeing a sumo wrestler (Teila Tuli) getting his tooth kicked out by a kick boxer (Gerard Gordeau) 30 seconds into the fight was the most mind blowing event to witness.