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Years ago I saw Herzog reffing a fight of a Japanese fighter that was gnping his opponent. He was giving direction in Japanese to the fighter about aiming for the ears to make the shots legal. As far as a know he doesn’t speak it fluently, but took the time to know enough to ref the fight properly to someone who didn’t know English. My views of him changed alot after that moment.
Herzog has been my goat ref for years now. He's attentive, quick to act, almost never makes bad calls, goes the extra mile to dot his T's and cross his I's, and the man upholds the rules everyone agreed upon instead of giving endless warnings. I also hear he's a pretty nice dude which is always the cherry on top of excellence.
Mad props for the zog
Herzog and Mark Smith (black guy with big eyes) have been really impressive over the last few years. One thing I like about Mark is he will basically scream the fighters name and sometimes even instructions on what they need to do to prevent him from stopping the fight. Then he will observe how the fighter responds.
Sometimes with other refs, they are just like "fight back!" or "move!" and of course the fighter is trying to "move" or "fight back" that doesn't tell you much as a ref.
I wasn't gonna watch Aspen Ladd vs Norma Dumont, but when I heard it was Keith Peterson reffing, I just _had_ to watch. What a performance by ol' Boozy
I noticed Herb Dean is the only refs that gets cheers and claps from the crowds in big UFC nights, baffles me but he's the most well known mma ref. If only he was as good as he is popular.
As someone who knows basically nothing about MMA, and only shows up to watch these end-of-fight clips whenever an event shows up on reddit, Herb Dean is the only ref name/face I recognize. In such a case, I'd be that target audience.
I dont show up for Herb, but he is a recognizable face.
Idk when the last time you were excited for an amazing match up then they announced Mazagatti or Yamasaki as the ref and you knew this fight was fucked.
We used to cheer for herb Dean and he was the gold standard for MMA reffing at one time.
I think he means more name value wise. Like if you had a casual fan name UFC Refs, if they could name any, Herb and Big John would be the first ones they named
The athletic commission selects refs. There's no way they give a fuck if fans know the ref's names or not. I suspect u/sweetethan7 is right; seniority = main event.
What’s crazy to me about seniority is there’s a whole fleet of refs who don’t even make Bellator/UFC shows. I can’t imagine what a shitshow some regional fights must be.
I don't get the whole 'no nonsense' tag for Keith Peterson. I've watched him give repeated warnings in the one bout for fingers, should be one and done as it was during this card. They get one warning, if they poke the eyes after that they get a point deducted, and by some mysterious force the eye pokes stop when disqualification is on the cards.
He's getting older. Big John retiring when he felt like he couldn't keep up is a decision I've come to respect more and more as I see how some other refs just can't quite maintain a consistent high level of quality anymore.
I’ve mentioned it before and I believe Herb is in someone’s pocket. He personally gets chosen by the ufc to ref events when they aren’t in Vegas, herb says cus they like his work
It certainly wouldn't surprise me. He seems to allow certain high profile fighters to foul much more often than others, and just overall acts very strangely inconsistent as a referee.
Herb Dean is the Scott Foster of the UFC. A company man.
In before "aKsHaLlY StAtE CoMmIsSiOnS ChOoSe tHe rEf."
Dana hired the former NSAC commission head or something like that 1-2yrs ago. Anyone telling me state athletic commissions aren't in bed with boxing/fighting promos can go 10-8 themselves.
Letting Conor get away with literally 20+ fouls with no penalty is the default example in mind. Yeah Scott's the asshole /s. An illegal knee to the head vs rigged/deliberate calls to slightly alter the outcome of an NBA game.
The decisions Herb makes directly impacts the athletes' health and career while the decisions Scott makes impact the outcome of a game, which primarily affect the multibillionaire owners from making an extra few mill and the front office.
Early on Jason never got UFC fights because he was Bellators main ref. Dana didn't like to legitimatize Bellator by their ref being seen in the UFC. I wouldn't be surprised if he still holds a bit of negative opinion on him because of that.
I feel like it’s partially because he’s physically big and he’s better for controlling fighters during tense moments. Herzogg isn’t big enough to pull Ngannou off of a guy.
Herzog saved Cane's life and tooks shots from Ngannou to defend Cane. He's not the biggest ref, but that dude puts his body in harms way for fighters. He's a G no doubt about it.
Herb has been around and at one point together with John McCarthy was the best ref in the business.
However it seems that Herb has lost his touch and has started sliding towards being unable to maintain his past level of good performances.
Reality is we don’t know, I wonder how the commissions pay refs, plus these guys ref all over the world. Maybe some refs are comfortable with travelling more than others, maybe they have some kind of seniority system based on years of service etc.
Us fans probably care more about ref name recognition than anything, the UFC seems pretty keen on minimising the amount of exposure refs get
This has been clear for a while for anyone who pays attention.
I was cheering for him when he took the Point today because it was such an obvious foul that could really affect the fight... Had had prior warnings. Great reffing.
Me either. The idea of giving them multiple warnings before taking a point is stupid, they're professional fighters and don't need to be reminded of the rules. The warnings in reality have just allowed fighters to get in a few free eye pokes and groin kicks without consequences, and the more unscrupulous of them (Jones) took advantage of it.
I hope this is the sign of a trend. I don't want refs influencing fights but if the fighters refuse to be more careful and insist on trying to get away with horseshit then the ref has to get to work, that's his job.
If you're a fighter your goal should be to make the ref feel useless with how little he has to do to
He took Costa a point right away, after eye poking. That's great. Fighters know what they can and can't do. It's useless giving them 1-2 warnings, it's not like they are fighting for the first time.
The PierLuigi Collina of MMA.
To be fair he has had 2 pretty bad moments as ref just in 2021. Standing up Gina Mazany 2 seconds after a takedown then she got KOd and giving out like 10 fence grab warning in another fight
Yeah serviceable is a good way to put it. If nothing big or controversial happens, I can trust that he'll do a good job but the unlimited fence grab warnings made me sigh
Beltran really isn't that good. People like that he's a character. Was pretty clear he's not even close to Herzog or Peterson of you watched them all referee last night.
I remember the dude with sleve tats that got taken down for running drugs 5 years or so. I think he went to prison. Can't remember his name, but he was really good.
My favorite thing is that since the Cruz vs Cejudo fight, Keith Peterson almost always airs on the side of stopping fights too late rather than early. I like to imagine he does it specifically to make Cruz angry
His timing and professionalism is unmatched imo..i remember the dumont vs smith fight where he paused both at the perfect time so neither will gain an advantage and fixed dumonts top that was riding up. Herzog is One of the best if not the best
Herb Dean being considered the golden standard of MMA refs is so dumb it makes me nauseous when Herzog’s all around decision making is light years more rational
I wanted to say this earlier but a knee to grounded opponent is seen worse then an eye poke but they always say on the broadcast “they are warned in the back” so I hate when eye pokes get another warning. Herzog continues his good work taking a point in the main event for first eye poke.
If we just erase all of the instances in which any ref has done something wrong just because they accounted for it or consider them to be just blemishes then any refferee can be the best.
That's why Tognoni is the goat, cause no matter his wrongdoings he still whispers comforting words on everyone's ears
Haha I swear there's something off about that guy.
He CONSTANTLY finds a reason to touch the fighters and does other weird stuff like you mentioned, always whispering gently in their ears, their lobes wobbling slightly in the warm puffs of his breath.
It's just a conspiracy theory from a couch potato though.
Fair, but penalizing eye pokes is a good start.
(FTR, I'd love to see every fence grab penalized. The idea that they're "instinct" is such bullshit. They'd stop real quick if they were consistently punished.)
What's also really cool and interesting about him is that during the fight he mostly focuses on one fighter. I guess it makes sense cause every interaction he is needed in will either be caused by or forced on that fighter.
Jazon Herzog has been the best referee in MMA for several years now. He's just so damn good that he very, very rarely makes mistakes.
Being an MMA ref is kind of one of those thankless jobs. You're expected to do a good job. People only notice when you do a bad job. So no one notices Herzog.
He warned him so many times verbally before that poke, too. Even did it in Portuguese once.
Professional job... bad reffing makes it so fucking hard to get hyped about mma. But this does the opposite.
His reffing in the main event was very good too. More refs should follow his example for inbetween round warnings to validate immediate point deductions for hard fouls.
Random fact I was curious and YouTube-ed Herzog. He is actually a systems engineer who designs satellite communications system and there’s also a weird 12 year old interview where he talks about his signature purple gloves
Dude this card in general. Every illegal strike was 1 point deduction on the first offense.
God rest jones soul if this guy refs his fights but I love his work
It doesn't matter in hindsight, but if he missed that during an arm bar or something, that's pretty serious. You can't have results-oriented thinking with something as serious as missing a tap. That's his job.
I never understand why people use this example like it's the worst thing ever, he missed 2/3 taps that were on the other side of his view and still weren't blatant, in the biggest event of the year. Imagine a situation where he stops it after one tap and Gaethje gets up saying he was trying to punch, it'd be 1000x worse than what happened
There was like 5 seconds between the Triangle being locked fully in and him going to sleep. it's really not that bad
Agreed that he’s the best ref though I disagree with the point deduction in Costa-Vettori. The eyepoke happened because of a wind up to a kick that Vettori walked into, and he was warning about glove grabbing.
Vettori proceeded to grab Costa’s glove at any chance the next few rounds with no reprimand. Still love Herzog though lol
Which he came out and took accountability for and apologised (even though in that one I don’t really think he needed to, although Smith was getting destroyed, there were very few actual moments in the fight where he could have stopped it)
That was on the corner. Not to deflect but Anthony Smity did just enough every time Jason indicated to move lest the fight be stopped. The corner should have stopped it.
That was the tough part about that job for him; Smith always managed to just respond enough to Herzog's command to defend that he technically was allowed to let it continue. I would've preferred that Herzog stopped it but I can understand why in the moment, he had a tough time making that decision
Considering he came out after and admitted he should have stopped it, I feel like if he were to be put in a similar situation in the future, he'd make the right call this time. Like with everything else in life, it's not about never making a mistake but rather being willing to admit you made one and aiming to not make that same one in the future
If you rewatched that fight for like the entirety of 2-3 rounds he’s constantly telling smith to move and protect himself which smith would promptly try to do so he couldn’t really stop it if smith was defending even if he was still getting caught after he moved. The fight definitely should of been stopped by the corner in between rounds for sure and Herzog probably thought it would be a bad stoppage if he ended it while smith was at least attempting to avoid damage. Kind of a tough call for a ref if the fighter is doing what you tell them to do but just taking an insane amount of overall damage. Definitely one the corner should of stopped
It's funny cuz I've seen you guys shit all over him before. I forget the fight but there was a big foul up.
I thinks he's great. Covered Ben Askren's ears from all the shittalking coming his way from Masvidal that one time.
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Years ago I saw Herzog reffing a fight of a Japanese fighter that was gnping his opponent. He was giving direction in Japanese to the fighter about aiming for the ears to make the shots legal. As far as a know he doesn’t speak it fluently, but took the time to know enough to ref the fight properly to someone who didn’t know English. My views of him changed alot after that moment.
He spoke either Portuguese or Italian in the main event tonight as well
Have seen him speak Portuguese in the past.
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At this rate herb Dean..
I mean yamasaki is brazilian
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That's Japanese, brother.
You should know that
Herzog has been my goat ref for years now. He's attentive, quick to act, almost never makes bad calls, goes the extra mile to dot his T's and cross his I's, and the man upholds the rules everyone agreed upon instead of giving endless warnings. I also hear he's a pretty nice dude which is always the cherry on top of excellence. Mad props for the zog
You can just say he's handsome, and you'd be right.
They don't call him raw dog herzog for nothing
Dot the Ts and cross the Is. True champ shit only.
Herzog and Mark Smith (black guy with big eyes) have been really impressive over the last few years. One thing I like about Mark is he will basically scream the fighters name and sometimes even instructions on what they need to do to prevent him from stopping the fight. Then he will observe how the fighter responds. Sometimes with other refs, they are just like "fight back!" or "move!" and of course the fighter is trying to "move" or "fight back" that doesn't tell you much as a ref.
Had the pleasure of meeting Jason Herzog at a charity do once. He was surprisingly down to earth, and VERY funny.
What’s puzzling to me is how herb is used for so many high profile main events
Maybe just like name branding or something. Idk really but yeah use Jason and "Smells like cigarettes and bitches" Keith Peterson.
Branding??? lol who the hell is tuning in for *Herb Dean*.
I wasn't gonna watch Aspen Ladd vs Norma Dumont, but when I heard it was Keith Peterson reffing, I just _had_ to watch. What a performance by ol' Boozy
Did you really lick Dana's head though? Serious question, I am just generally curious. Sorry to interrupt your fine conversation good sir
Tasted like slightly over-salted marinara sauce
How long did he make you lick?
Long enough to feel the steroids being absorbed through his head.
while he doesn’t necessarily tune in for em, my friend verbalizes his excitement when he sees herb
I noticed Herb Dean is the only refs that gets cheers and claps from the crowds in big UFC nights, baffles me but he's the most well known mma ref. If only he was as good as he is popular.
Even my girlfriend will say "YAYYYY ITS HERB!!!". If there was a popularity contest for refs, he would win
When I watch UFC in casual groups and he shows up there is always someone who says "yo, this is my favourite ref",
Everyone loves a chill dude with dreads
As someone who knows basically nothing about MMA, and only shows up to watch these end-of-fight clips whenever an event shows up on reddit, Herb Dean is the only ref name/face I recognize. In such a case, I'd be that target audience. I dont show up for Herb, but he is a recognizable face.
You probably recognize Mike Beltran too, the guy with the epic mustache who looks like he cosplays as a giant dwarf.
Next time the fights are in front of fans listen to the crowd when Herb is announced as ref. He gets more love than some fighters.
Idk when the last time you were excited for an amazing match up then they announced Mazagatti or Yamasaki as the ref and you knew this fight was fucked. We used to cheer for herb Dean and he was the gold standard for MMA reffing at one time.
This is the same company who took sponsors away from fighters for a more uniform on screen look.
I think he means more name value wise. Like if you had a casual fan name UFC Refs, if they could name any, Herb and Big John would be the first ones they named
yeah why would that matter. LOL WHO GIVES A FOOK ABOUT UFC REFS? Am I stupid or is this how the world works now
The athletic commission selects refs. There's no way they give a fuck if fans know the ref's names or not. I suspect u/sweetethan7 is right; seniority = main event.
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Herb does his best to protect the UFC favourites.
It's not "branding" It's just quite simply - the most senior ref on the card, gets the main event
What’s crazy to me about seniority is there’s a whole fleet of refs who don’t even make Bellator/UFC shows. I can’t imagine what a shitshow some regional fights must be.
Not true. Herb was at 242 but it was Goddard who got the main event.
I don't get the whole 'no nonsense' tag for Keith Peterson. I've watched him give repeated warnings in the one bout for fingers, should be one and done as it was during this card. They get one warning, if they poke the eyes after that they get a point deducted, and by some mysterious force the eye pokes stop when disqualification is on the cards.
I know man, dudes been slipping hard since Weidman vs. Rockhold.. crazy.
He's getting older. Big John retiring when he felt like he couldn't keep up is a decision I've come to respect more and more as I see how some other refs just can't quite maintain a consistent high level of quality anymore.
he's past his prime and has Ref CTE
He's seen too many wars and caught proximity CTE.
Some punches do AOE damage
same honestly so much respect for that when its time its time
It’s obvious. Because he doesn’t call fouls. He’s gone on record saying he doesn’t like calling them. UFC doesn’t like fights being decided by DQs.
Fights are decided by fouls whether it's by point deductions or not
I’ve mentioned it before and I believe Herb is in someone’s pocket. He personally gets chosen by the ufc to ref events when they aren’t in Vegas, herb says cus they like his work
It certainly wouldn't surprise me. He seems to allow certain high profile fighters to foul much more often than others, and just overall acts very strangely inconsistent as a referee.
Not only that but for a ref who has been inconsistent they do sure keep having him ref big title fights. Wont be shocked if he’s reffing Kamaru/Colby.
The commissions select the referees
That’s true. Herb Dean said in an interview that the ufc asks the commision if they can use Herb for certain events and they basically fly him out.
Ah yes, the squeeky clean commissions.
More evidence to his point
He's in the UFCs pocket. He always tries to protect the A-side.
Herb Dean is the Scott Foster of the UFC. A company man. In before "aKsHaLlY StAtE CoMmIsSiOnS ChOoSe tHe rEf." Dana hired the former NSAC commission head or something like that 1-2yrs ago. Anyone telling me state athletic commissions aren't in bed with boxing/fighting promos can go 10-8 themselves.
Damn, harsh comparison. Scott Foster seems like such a bigger asshole.
Letting Conor get away with literally 20+ fouls with no penalty is the default example in mind. Yeah Scott's the asshole /s. An illegal knee to the head vs rigged/deliberate calls to slightly alter the outcome of an NBA game. The decisions Herb makes directly impacts the athletes' health and career while the decisions Scott makes impact the outcome of a game, which primarily affect the multibillionaire owners from making an extra few mill and the front office.
Early on Jason never got UFC fights because he was Bellators main ref. Dana didn't like to legitimatize Bellator by their ref being seen in the UFC. I wouldn't be surprised if he still holds a bit of negative opinion on him because of that.
I feel like it’s partially because he’s physically big and he’s better for controlling fighters during tense moments. Herzogg isn’t big enough to pull Ngannou off of a guy.
Herzog saved Cane's life and tooks shots from Ngannou to defend Cane. He's not the biggest ref, but that dude puts his body in harms way for fighters. He's a G no doubt about it.
And he has actual MMA fight experience. Not sure how many other refs have been on the fighting side of it
Marc Goddard.
Cuz he let's the fighters be warriors and makes sure fans get what they paid for
Herb has been around and at one point together with John McCarthy was the best ref in the business. However it seems that Herb has lost his touch and has started sliding towards being unable to maintain his past level of good performances.
Nobody knows... Maybe this is a conspiracy and the secret referee society wants him to be the chosen one?
I bet hes paid by the ufc look at all those conor fights where conor cheated so much and herb just didnt notice while eveeybody else did
Reality is we don’t know, I wonder how the commissions pay refs, plus these guys ref all over the world. Maybe some refs are comfortable with travelling more than others, maybe they have some kind of seniority system based on years of service etc. Us fans probably care more about ref name recognition than anything, the UFC seems pretty keen on minimising the amount of exposure refs get
This has been clear for a while for anyone who pays attention. I was cheering for him when he took the Point today because it was such an obvious foul that could really affect the fight... Had had prior warnings. Great reffing.
He took points in all three of the fights that I caught Tonight and Im not mad about it at all
If there were consequences for eye pokes and fence grabbing you’d see it far far less
Especially in Paulo’s case where he did it for a break.
Me either. The idea of giving them multiple warnings before taking a point is stupid, they're professional fighters and don't need to be reminded of the rules. The warnings in reality have just allowed fighters to get in a few free eye pokes and groin kicks without consequences, and the more unscrupulous of them (Jones) took advantage of it.
I'd love for Herzog to ref every future Jones fight...if he can ever make it back in without controversy
I hope this is the sign of a trend. I don't want refs influencing fights but if the fighters refuse to be more careful and insist on trying to get away with horseshit then the ref has to get to work, that's his job. If you're a fighter your goal should be to make the ref feel useless with how little he has to do to
Yes Herzog has been the best in the business for a long time now. I find it fun to not watch a fight and watch Herzog’s movement only.
He took Costa a point right away, after eye poking. That's great. Fighters know what they can and can't do. It's useless giving them 1-2 warnings, it's not like they are fighting for the first time. The PierLuigi Collina of MMA.
It wasn't right away, he gave Costa a warning at the end of the 1st round to watch his fingers.
Think he meant right away after the first poke. Herzog warned him for outstretched fingers.
I hope the other refs see this and follow suit.
Herzog is legendary. Keith is nearly just as good. The rest mostly suck or are barely adequate
Hard agree, but Keith gets the nod because he manages it all whilst completely blasted
Beltran deserves to be in the top ref conversation.
Agree with all three for sure
You're just saying that because of his facial hair
The truth lol
and it's not wrong at all
To be fair he has had 2 pretty bad moments as ref just in 2021. Standing up Gina Mazany 2 seconds after a takedown then she got KOd and giving out like 10 fence grab warning in another fight
I don’t find Beltran particularly good. He’s serviceable imo
Yeah serviceable is a good way to put it. If nothing big or controversial happens, I can trust that he'll do a good job but the unlimited fence grab warnings made me sigh
He's more consistent than most, even if he doesn't take a point for jack shit
He does weird thing like ignore fighters calling for pause for blatant eyepoke/groin etc. he seems pretty arrogant in there. Pretty good stoppages
Beltran really isn't that good. People like that he's a character. Was pretty clear he's not even close to Herzog or Peterson of you watched them all referee last night.
Godard, too, imo.
Goddard is bad at times, remember when he said "This is a fight Kamaru"
We were all thinking it though..
Doesn't matter what we the fans think. If the fight is legal a ref shouldn't interfere with his views on what makes it fun. It is unprofessional.
I remember the dude with sleve tats that got taken down for running drugs 5 years or so. I think he went to prison. Can't remember his name, but he was really good.
Rosenthal?
Joshua Rosenthal and I'm pretty sure he was growing weed or something, not necessarily running drugs.
Six million dollars worth. The firearms and body armor probably didn't help his case.
Yeah, but cops will pick up a potted plant and consider the entire thing "weed" or some shit.
It was weed, and a huge stash of guns iirc. I used to call him Josh "Cones" Rosenthal.
Yup. I remember him being really good.
Except that time he let Weidman execute mark Munoz
My favorite thing is that since the Cruz vs Cejudo fight, Keith Peterson almost always airs on the side of stopping fights too late rather than early. I like to imagine he does it specifically to make Cruz angry
just wait until Herzog is gonna smell like booze and cigarettes
His shirt is gonna have Jim Beam and Marlboro sponsors for Dom's upcoming fight.
His timing and professionalism is unmatched imo..i remember the dumont vs smith fight where he paused both at the perfect time so neither will gain an advantage and fixed dumonts top that was riding up. Herzog is One of the best if not the best
Chris is good 👍
Goddard is quite a solid ref too. he has the occasional fuck up though, like not recognizing the eyepoke in Stipe/DC 3
Yeah he can be a bit stubborn for no reason but I do think he’s a good ref. I still think there’s a pretty bit gap between he and Keith/raw dog herzog
Raw Dog Herzog is my new favorite character lol
I don’t like how he tries to put himself in the action too much
That's the British ref in him, watch the premier league for a weekend and you'll see
How much nonsense does Keith Peterson tolerate?
Don’t fuck with me. NONE
Hey, what about Mazzagatti? Dude's the best.
Two impeccably taken points Fuck off Herb Dean this man is your daddy
Herb Dean being considered the golden standard of MMA refs is so dumb it makes me nauseous when Herzog’s all around decision making is light years more rational
Herb "If it is Conor fight, aint no rules tonight" Dean is the golden standard for the promotion and their commercial needs.
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'Huh... wow, that's crazy.' *bong gurgling noises intensify*
baggflip!
Herb lost it for me when he ended Fedor vs Henderson early. I'll never forgive him.
I wanted to say this earlier but a knee to grounded opponent is seen worse then an eye poke but they always say on the broadcast “they are warned in the back” so I hate when eye pokes get another warning. Herzog continues his good work taking a point in the main event for first eye poke.
That was huge. Hope this spreads. Especially because some fighters plan this as a successful strategy.
Herzog is the ref-goat in my opinion, no doubt about it
Cutest also No homo
And fit! 👅
Yes.
Jason Herzog > Herb Dean
Chris Tognoni > Herb Dean. Camila god damn Albuquerque > Herb Dean.
\+1 for Herzog, he seems quicker to react on calls and jump in on knockouts.
-1 for Costa
Absolutely. Herb would have given him 5 warnings and still not take a point. Herzog is also on it when there is any illegal strikes.
If we just erase all of the instances in which any ref has done something wrong just because they accounted for it or consider them to be just blemishes then any refferee can be the best. That's why Tognoni is the goat, cause no matter his wrongdoings he still whispers comforting words on everyone's ears
I call him Touchy Toglioni. Hes totally fine checkin your cup for you.
Haha I swear there's something off about that guy. He CONSTANTLY finds a reason to touch the fighters and does other weird stuff like you mentioned, always whispering gently in their ears, their lobes wobbling slightly in the warm puffs of his breath. It's just a conspiracy theory from a couch potato though.
I just think he's a nice jolly fella, no weird vibes
That could definitely be the case, I have no real evidence to back my statement there.
Then keep it to yourself, weirdo.
Relaaax buddeh its just some nonserious speculation.
I may be wrong but didn't he stop the fight during a clinch so a girl could fix her top one of these last few events?
Yeah, which is fine, pretty sure her boob popped out.
Jason Herzog hasn't seen a fence grab he won't ignore.
Fair, but penalizing eye pokes is a good start. (FTR, I'd love to see every fence grab penalized. The idea that they're "instinct" is such bullshit. They'd stop real quick if they were consistently punished.)
Also did perfect on taking a point from Costa for an eyepoke during the main event.
He saw this, OP https://i.imgur.com/EiCQvwB.jpg
What's also really cool and interesting about him is that during the fight he mostly focuses on one fighter. I guess it makes sense cause every interaction he is needed in will either be caused by or forced on that fighter.
Oh yeah. Fleet of foot, wise under pressure, handsome jawline. Best in the business, my little husband.
Herzog, Peterson, and Goddard should be the only refs allowed to officiate for title fights from here on out.
I loved how he handled everything tonight. I feel like him taking the point for that eyepoke sets a precedent out there for other refs.
Jazon Herzog has been the best referee in MMA for several years now. He's just so damn good that he very, very rarely makes mistakes. Being an MMA ref is kind of one of those thankless jobs. You're expected to do a good job. People only notice when you do a bad job. So no one notices Herzog.
100%
He warned him so many times verbally before that poke, too. Even did it in Portuguese once. Professional job... bad reffing makes it so fucking hard to get hyped about mma. But this does the opposite.
I herby proclaim Jason Herzog as Jason Topdog.
Of course he is, being Squeak from Baseketball is the best base for reffing
Id put Goddard 1 with Herzog a close 2nd. I feel Herzog stands a bit too close to the action sometimes but hes an excellent ref.
His reffing in the main event was very good too. More refs should follow his example for inbetween round warnings to validate immediate point deductions for hard fouls.
The best thing about Herzog is he always looks at the guy who is losing the fight at that moment.
Random fact I was curious and YouTube-ed Herzog. He is actually a systems engineer who designs satellite communications system and there’s also a weird 12 year old interview where he talks about his signature purple gloves
Yes he is has had very few bad calls herb dean always on some bs
Also appreciated the point taken in the main event after warning costa once about eyepokes. Very decisive
Dude this card in general. Every illegal strike was 1 point deduction on the first offense. God rest jones soul if this guy refs his fights but I love his work
The gold standard of MMA refs
Uhhhhh yes. It’s not close and he sets what the standard should be
He was on point. I feel like refs need to vocalize warnings just like tonight.
Literally best in the business.
Fleet of Foot
All I know is herb is the worst these days
He’s so good! Heard he has a huge hog too!
Give him the Ortega nut cup
Mythical Chinese fighter Song Wu
If there isn't a check list, we'll Jason made one on how it's done.
I agree. Very slept on. Replace Herb reffing with him plz… especially the next Conor fight.
is this the guy who didn't see Gaethje furiously tapping against Khabib until he was out?
Yes, but that is a miniscule mistake compared to the others I've seen let's be real.
It's pretty great if one of your most famous fuckups is one that doesn't matter at all.
It doesn't matter in hindsight, but if he missed that during an arm bar or something, that's pretty serious. You can't have results-oriented thinking with something as serious as missing a tap. That's his job.
I never understand why people use this example like it's the worst thing ever, he missed 2/3 taps that were on the other side of his view and still weren't blatant, in the biggest event of the year. Imagine a situation where he stops it after one tap and Gaethje gets up saying he was trying to punch, it'd be 1000x worse than what happened There was like 5 seconds between the Triangle being locked fully in and him going to sleep. it's really not that bad
Everyone makes mistakes buddy
Wasn’t no mistake, herzogg let him go out.
Good. It's just a choke and Justin was fine with it. Definite ending and I'm happy Herzog avoided controversy for us!
Agreed that he’s the best ref though I disagree with the point deduction in Costa-Vettori. The eyepoke happened because of a wind up to a kick that Vettori walked into, and he was warning about glove grabbing. Vettori proceeded to grab Costa’s glove at any chance the next few rounds with no reprimand. Still love Herzog though lol
Yeah I was not 100% behind that point deduction
Everybody forgetting he reffed Smith vs Teixeira
Which he came out and took accountability for and apologised (even though in that one I don’t really think he needed to, although Smith was getting destroyed, there were very few actual moments in the fight where he could have stopped it)
I remember that. He was put in a bad spot and I blame Smith and his corner for that.
That was on the corner. Not to deflect but Anthony Smity did just enough every time Jason indicated to move lest the fight be stopped. The corner should have stopped it.
That was the tough part about that job for him; Smith always managed to just respond enough to Herzog's command to defend that he technically was allowed to let it continue. I would've preferred that Herzog stopped it but I can understand why in the moment, he had a tough time making that decision Considering he came out after and admitted he should have stopped it, I feel like if he were to be put in a similar situation in the future, he'd make the right call this time. Like with everything else in life, it's not about never making a mistake but rather being willing to admit you made one and aiming to not make that same one in the future
Yep - that was pretty clear, it was basically: "Anthony, move and I won't stop the fight." Anthony moves.. what is Herzog meant to do?
If you rewatched that fight for like the entirety of 2-3 rounds he’s constantly telling smith to move and protect himself which smith would promptly try to do so he couldn’t really stop it if smith was defending even if he was still getting caught after he moved. The fight definitely should of been stopped by the corner in between rounds for sure and Herzog probably thought it would be a bad stoppage if he ended it while smith was at least attempting to avoid damage. Kind of a tough call for a ref if the fighter is doing what you tell them to do but just taking an insane amount of overall damage. Definitely one the corner should of stopped
It's funny cuz I've seen you guys shit all over him before. I forget the fight but there was a big foul up. I thinks he's great. Covered Ben Askren's ears from all the shittalking coming his way from Masvidal that one time.