What is Herb Dean’s Net Worth and Salary? Latest Update on Career, UFC Fights, Controversies, Martial Arts, Acting Career, and Personal Life in 2022
Herb Dean was born in Pasadena, California, in 1970. He began training in martial arts at the age of nine and went on to train in a variety of disciplines throughout his adolescence. Dean famously trained with Frank Trejo when UFC 1 was just getting started. He continued to practice with Trejo and eventually added judo and jiu jitsu to his program. Dean later met boxer Larry Landless in 1996, who introduced him to MMA training at Los Angeles’ Submission Factory.
Herb Dean’s Net Worth
Herb Dean is a $2.5 million dollar net worth American mixed martial arts referee and retired fighter. He is widely regarded as the gold standard in MMA as a referee for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Dean also earned the World MMA Award for Referee of the Year every year from 2010 to 2014, and again in 2019 and 2020, according to Fighters Only Magazine.
Note of UFC Fights
Over the course of his career, Herb Dean has officiated a slew of famous games. One of them was UFC 48, which featured a fight between Tim Sylvia and Frank Mir in the summer of 2004. When Dean discovered Sylvia had broken his arm, he attempted to end the battle, but Sylvia vehemently objected and insisted that the fight continue. Dr. Margaret Goodman, the ringside physician, was eventually able to call a halt to the match. At UFC 61, there was also a rematch between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock.
Dean intervened once more to break up the fight, this time after Ortiz delivered several unanswered elbows to Shamrock’s head. Dean scored Ortiz the TKO victory, which enraged Shamrock, who had to be escorted out of the Octagon.
Dean officiated the fight between Gabriel Gonzaga and Mirko Filipovi at UFC 70 in 2007. Gonzaga knocked out Filipovi with a kick to the head in this vicious encounter, which saw Dean stand it up from the guard position. After the strike, Filipovi landed hard, with his right foot turned 180 degrees backward and pinned beneath his torso.
To avoid serious harm, Dean unfastened him from the pin. Dean was later lauded as the greatest referee in the game by UFC president Dana White following UFC 109 due to his acute eye and judgment. Renzo Gracie, Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, Randy Couture, and George St. Pierre are just a few of the many big names Dean has referred to.
Controversies
Despite his many accolades and triumphs, Dean has had his fair share of ring troubles. He was chastised for stopping the main event fight between Urijah Faber and Renan Baro for the UFC bantamweight title at UFC 169. Dean earned more criticism for a late stoppage of a fight between C. B. Dollaway and Khalid Murtazaliev at UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Oleinik in 2018. In March of this year, at UFC 235, Dana White chastised Dean for handing a win to Ben Askren, who had done a bulldog choke against Robbie Lawler.
Career in Mixed Martial Arts
Dean has a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) record of 2-3. He defeated Randy Halmot by submission in his professional debut battle at Gladiator Challenge 6 in September 2001. In early 2003, he was defeated by Joe Riggs in his next match. Dean defeated Timothy Mendoza by TKO at KOTC 39: Hitmaster the next year. He then went on to lose his next two matches to Jung Gyu Choi and Dave Legeno, respectively.
Career as a teacher
Dean also offers official MMA certification classes to aspiring referees and judges in addition to refereeing. The courses cover topics such as ABC Unified Rules, judging rules, and scoring criteria and involve classroom lectures, written testing, and presentations. Dean also shows a video of the event for mock judging, discussion, and scoring calibration.
Career as an actor
Dean has had a couple of appearances on the big screen in addition to the ring. In the comedy “Here Comes the Boom,” starring Kevin James, Henry Winkler, and Salma Hayek, he made a surprise appearance as himself in 2012. In 2017, he got a brief part in the film “A Violent Man.” Dean appeared in “The Divine Fury,” a South Korean action horror film about a disturbed youngster who gains divine powers and becomes an MMA fighter, two years later.
Personal Experiences
Dean is married to Victoria, a Russian woman. The duo is based in Los Angeles.