MMAWeekly: Firstly, Roy claimed that you didn't stop the fight in the first round because of Kimbo's status on the show. How do you respond to that?
Dean: Well, it's not that complicated. I'm there to protect the fighter's safety. Kimbo got up after that round pretty quick and spry, right? If I stop a fight it's because I believe a fighter's not fighting back, because he can't. And there's reasons why a fighter can't fight back. One is a positional reason like Roy had on Kimbo. It was positional. Could (Kimbo) handle blows and continue to fight? He did. He made it to the end of the (first) round and continued to fight. If the blows were any less, I would have actually stood them up. The blows were strong enough to warrant being on the ground, but they weren't strong enough for me to stop the fight.
...
MMAWeekly: So you felt the blows that Kimbo was taking in the second round were, whereas the ones in the first round weren't?
Dean: Well, I believe that the blows were solid blows. In the first round, they were solid blows, just like in the second round, but in the second round, it was the beginning of the round that he was down there. I can't allow him - he was not going to improve his position, he was not going to solve it - I couldn't allow him five minutes of that in the second round. Could I allow him to take it for 30 seconds in the first? Sure.
Referee Herb Dean talking to MMA Weekly.
I can't remember if I went on the record bitching about Dean's reffing of the match or not, but I must admit, he makes a compelling case for himself.
