Aljamain Sterling eviscerates referee Herb Dean over Adriano Moraes vs. Phumi Nkuta controversy

Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling believes referee Herb Dean shouldn’t officiate high-level MMA bouts anymore.

Longtime Mixed Martial Arts referee Herb Dean was under the spotlight once again, for the wrong reasons, last Saturday at Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano.

Dean, who has been a mainstay in MMA officiating for decades, was slow to react to a thunderous knockout punch from Francis Ngannou on his opponent Philipe Lins. Earlier in the night, a matchup between former ONE champ Adriano Moraes and undefeated prospect Phumi Nkuta ended controversially after Moraes appeared to submit Nkuta after the final bell.

Dean awarded Moraes a submission win at 4:59 of Round 3, prompting strong reactions online. Nkuta and his team have appealed the fight result with the California State Athletic Commission, although the result of the appeal remains uncertain.

A former UFC champion, Aljamain Sterling, watched all the action and believes it’s time for significant changes to be made to Dean’s officiating future.

Aljamain Sterling: Herb Dean needs to be demoted after latest officiating controversies

In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Sterling called for Dean to be demoted to lower-level MMA competition after multiple controversies at Rousey vs. Carano.

Nkuta is fighting the hands as the bell rings and Moraes holds the choke for an extra second or two (or three) after the bell.

I think that the wrong call was made. pic.twitter.com/mV9MNQPBgU

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) May 17, 2026

“Herb Dean is just an awful, awful referee. He’s a good dude, but he’s a bad ref,” Sterling said of Dean.

“It’s not an easy job, but when you consistently mess up, it’s so hard to keep trying to back you…at this point, this man is just burying himself. You guys have to do better, man. Not a terrible person…Adriano Moraes held on to the choke after the bell for two seconds. He totally got away with it. He was moving when the bell came up, and not after…and I don’t think that was a hard decision with a blood choke, if it’s not on the right spot, it might take a little longer…it’s such foul play and intentionally did it to cause confusion.

“I know it’s fighting, and we’re supposed to be tough and not b**** about things. But that’s f***** up,” Sterling continued. “You get in, and when you get in, it’s almost impossible to get you out. When you have tenure…you just have to not do anything crazy for two, three years, and once you get tenure, you can be the worst. And it gets to a certain point when you can’t protect someone else, and he should be demoted to lower levels of competition.”

This is far from the first time that Sterling has criticized Dean during his fighting career. As UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili cruised to a dominant win over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306, Dean repeatedly pressed Dvalishvili to ‘work’ during grappling exchanges, prompting strong criticism from Dvalishvili’s teammate, Sterling.

What are your thoughts on the Adriano Moraes vs. Phumi Nkuta stoppage? Let us know in the comments!