Foster Backs Dean on Pereira-Gane Calls

California State Athletic Commission executive director Andy Foster has defended referee Herb Dean after criticism of Dean’s work in the Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane fight at the UFC White House card. Pereira publicly challenged Dean’s handling of the finishing sequence after Gane dropped him and followed with punches while Pereira held on and attempted to survive. Some of Gane’s strikes landed to the back of Pereira’s head, an illegal target, but Dean allowed the action to continue until Gane secured a TKO victory.

Foster said he watched the exchange in real time and did not see it as an unusual sequence. His assessment centered on the punch that put Pereira on the ground and began Gane’s attempt to finish. Foster acknowledged that some shots reached the back of the head, but questioned whether stopping the action during a fast-moving scramble would have been the right response. Pereira was trying to recover and Gane was throwing hammer fists, while Pereira’s head was moving as he defended. Foster said that movement can cause strikes that begin as legal blows to land in illegal areas. The result remains a TKO win for Gane, who claimed the interim UFC heavyweight title.

Foster sees a difficult live decision

Foster said the key question was what a referee should do when illegal contact occurs in the middle of a finishing burst that began with a knockdown. In his view, many high-level referees would not have stopped the action in that setting. He described the situation as Dean’s dilemma and said he believed it would have been worse to halt the fight, because a stoppage could have given Pereira time to recover and materially changed the outcome. Foster’s comments did not deny that punches landed behind Pereira’s head. Instead, they focused on the challenge of judging those strikes as the fighters moved constantly on the ground.

The commission executive also made clear that his defense of Dean did not amount to a view that every foul should receive only a warning. Foster said he told Dean that referees should not warn fighters repeatedly and that a point must be taken at some stage. He contrasted the Pereira-Gane sequence with Jason Herzog’s handling of an illegal knee thrown by Wang Cong in a fight involving Urijah Faber’s fighter. Foster called that foul egregious and said Herzog was absolutely correct to deduct a point immediately. He said a foul was a foul in 2001 and remains one in 2026. Foster added that referees should probably give their first warning in the back, while noting that many already do so. He also said criticism of Dean, Marc Goddard, or other referees is not always fair, even though officiating itself is not fair.

Rule language could change foul decisions

Beyond the individual fight, Foster said he plans to introduce language for a rule change that would better define illegal fouls and the penalties attached to them. His preferred approach would move away from the familiar intentional-versus-unintentional distinction. Foster said the replacement could use three categories: incidental, reckless and malicious. He described malicious conduct as close to the worst kind of behavior, using biting as an example, and said it would not be seen often. Incidental conduct would bring an instruction not to repeat it. Reckless conduct could cover actions such as extended fingers and eye pokes, with point deductions potentially used for that type of action. Foster said Dean remains the senior referee in California, said Dean is a good referee, and stated that Dean has his full confidence. He added that Dean will work main events at Foster’s upcoming UFC events.

• Foster said the knockdown started Gane’s finishing sequence and that stopping the action could have changed Pereira’s chance to recover.
• Foster wants foul guidance built around incidental, reckless and malicious conduct rather than intentional and unintentional fouls.

Foster’s response keeps the focus on the judgment required during a live finishing sequence rather than on revisiting the result. He accepted that illegal shots reached the back of Pereira’s head, but said Dean faced a difficult choice in deciding whether an intervention would create a greater problem. At the same time, Foster pointed toward firmer and clearer foul standards for future cases, particularly where conduct is reckless or egregious. For now, his position is that Dean handled a difficult situation as well as possible, while MMA officiating still needs more precise tools for deciding when warnings should become penalties.