Jorge Masvidal wasn’t happy about how Herb Dean handled Colby Covington’s accidental eye poke at UFC 272.
“BMF” champion Jorge Masvidal isn’t happy about Herb Dean’s officiating for UFC 272. “Gamebred” took issue with Dean’s failure to take action in those early moments of round one when Colby Covington accidentally poked him in the eye.
During the post-fight presser, Masvidal unloaded his displeasure with Dean onto the media.
“The eye poke was pretty bad, man. The only thing that’s hurting right now is the f—ng eye,” Masvidal told reporters. “My eye’s still throbbing right now. I’ve had a couple of mishaps at Herb Dean. I just don’t get it why he didn’t fix the action. (Colby) threw a punch, missed, and immediately just jabbed me in the f—ng eyeball.
“I’m not gonna take nothing away from him winning the fight, ‘cause that was just one sequence. But it would’ve been cool if (Herb) stopped it there, and I would’ve gotten my breathing to restart, because (Colby) poked the shit out of my eye.
“Me and Herb Dean don’t have a clean record as it is. We’ve had a couple of mishaps in the past. He’s not my cup of tea when it comes to refereeing.”
Dean did issue a stern warning to Covington in the following round after seeing the replay. But for Masvidal, the poke should’ve been addressed as soon as it happened.
“I was just surprised that after the eye poke in the first round, he didn’t just break it up and address it,” he said. “That position wouldn’t have happened had he not poked me in the eye. It’s whatever. It’s Herb Dean stuff. Everybody here, if you’ve seen fighting, you’ve seen Herb Dean have numerous hiccups.”
But overall, Masvidal knows where his weaknesses in the fight were. Like he told Joe Rogan in the Octagon interview, he also addressed the holes in his wrestling game.
“It’s always been tough fights for me with the wrestlers, thinking, ‘Is he gonna shoot on me?’ So I don’t open up as much on my feet as I should. Then I get in big scrambles and I get outscrambled. So I need to fix the wrestling, man,” Masvidal admitted.
“If I could do it all over again, I would’ve gone to college and wrestled my ass off. (If) I got my grades up, I’d be able to stuff all these guys up and just keep it on the feet. I was just flat on the wrestling.”
As for Covington, here’s what he had to say about him.
“He’s still somebody if I see him out on the streets, I’m gonna give him everything I got to break his f—ng jaw in. It doesn’t matter if I lost wrestling scrambles tonight, I still think he’s a f—ng pussy.”
After signing what’s said to be one of the most lucrative contracts in the UFC today, Masvidal is now staring at a three-fight losing skid. He drops to a record of 35-16.