Referee Herb Dean makes mess of The Ultimate Fighter 34 fight with confusing call

Referee Herb Dean stirred up more controversy during The Ultimate Fighter 34 when he mishandled a bantamweight tournament semifinal between Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu and Xavier Franklin on Team Michael Bisping.

With under a minute remaining in a competitive fight, Franklin appeared to stun Akylbek Uulu and landed a hard right hand that prompted Dean to stop the bout. Dean told Akylbek Uulu "You're done, stop," but the fighter immediately protested, claiming he had suffered an eye poke. Dean called for a video review, and after consultation with cageside observers including Bisping, UFC CEO Dana White, and a commissioner, he decided to restart the fight with 50 seconds left on the clock.

Akylbek Uulu recovered and won the resumed contest by decision, controlling the first two rounds with wrestling. Bisping expressed sympathy for Franklin's frustrating finish, noting that Franklin had clearly hurt and stopped his opponent with a clean right hand before the controversial eye-poke claim. "Whether he was or whether he wasn't, I'm not disputing that," Bisping said, emphasizing that Franklin had executed the finish. Footage appeared to show Franklin's hand open as he contacted Akylbek Uulu's face, leaving the eye poke disputed.

Dean has faced repeated scrutiny in recent years for various in-cage errors, and this incident added to that pattern. Akylbek Uulu advances to the TUF 34 bantamweight final against either Christian Strong or Mehemmedeli Osmanli. Viewers criticized Dean's handling of the situation, with the confusing restart creating a rare and awkward precedent in the fight's final moments.