Alex Pereira Calls For Ref Herb Dean to be Punished After UFC Freedom 250

Alex Pereira's heavyweight debut didn't go as planned at UFC Freedom 250 on Sunday.

The former two-division champion lost an interim heavyweight championship fight to Ciryl Gane via second-round TKO - a victory that's highly controversial because of how it happened.

Gane became just the second fighter ever to finish Pereira via strikes, however, his win was marred by controversy due to the 8-10 illegal elbows he hit to the side and back of Pereira's head with en route to the finish.

The Brazilian striker even posted photos on his Instagram showing clear signs of the elbows connecting with the back of his head.

Two days after the bout, Pereira spoke out on the events that led to his fourth professional loss - and he's not happy.

"The ref is watching that they are illegal shots, but he thinks like this, ‘How am I going to stop this fight?'" Pereira stated. "It's illegal, it's in the rules. You're not going to be wrong if you stop it. It's in the rules - you stop it.

"If people say, ‘Why did you stop it?' Look at the video - nobody was going to say anything about the ref. In that scenario, people give him credit as a man. But now he is not a man. He shouldn't have been refereeing that fight. To be honest, a guy like that should be punished. That's how it is. It's a very serious job. It's a very serious event. What happened, the ref should've faced legal consequences for that."

Pereira even spoke to Dean before the fight about being on the lookout for Gane throwing illegal strikes. Dean clearly didn't heed Pereira's warning.

UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall agrees with Pereira's sentiment. Aspinall even pointed out during his live reaction to the fight that Gane got away with illegal strikes.

"[The elbows] look a bit illegal," Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. "They look very illegal. What is going on? Dropped him with a jab and he's swinging now trying to finish him."

Pereira could potentially appeal the decision, though no indication has been given that he's leaning that way.

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This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 3:59 PM.