Alex Pereira blasts referee Herb Dean following UFC White House defeat

It was a frustrating night for "Poatan" at UFC White House. | Getty/UFC While Alex Pereira admits that Ciryl Gane rocked him in their UFC White House matchup, the Brazilian star also believes what followed deserved some closer examination. “Poatan” was on the defensive after being hurt by a Gane jab in their interim heavyweight title bout on Sunday, but during the ensuing salvo, “Bon Gamin” appeared to land multiple 12-to-6 elbows to the back of his opponent’s head.

While Pereira did return to his feet, Gane ultimately finished the job with more powerful punches at the 1:27 mark of Round 2. In a video on YouTube, Pereira addressed the loss as well as Dean’s officiating in the heat of the moment. “Putting myself in the referee’s shoes, my opponent’s there and catches me, I drop, he starts striking,” Pereira said.

“The ref is watching that they are illegal shots, but he thinks like this, ‘How am I going to stop this fight?’ It’s illegal, it’s in the rules. You’re not going to be wrong if you stop it.

It’s in the rules; you stop it. “If people say, ‘Why did you stop it?’ Look at the video; nobody was going to say anything about the ref.

In that scenario, people give him credit as a man. But now he is not a man. He shouldn’t have been refereeing that fight.

To be honest, a guy like that should be punished. That’s how it is. It’s a very serious job.

It’s a very serious event. What happened, the ref should’ve faced legal consequences for that.” Pereira was well aware of Gane’s penchant for fouls, which is something he claimed to have addressed during the rules meeting before the fight.

“It’s a contact sport, but on the back of the head? You’re right there, man, you have to be seeing it. But that was the opportunity of a lifetime for him, and the referee was right there to see it,” Pereira said.

“The day before the fight, we had a rules meeting. I asked [coach] Plinio [Cruz] to translate for him, and I told him, ‘Look, man, eye poke, groin strikes, those things can happen.