Legendary UFC referee finally settles if Alex Pereira's defeat to Ciryl Gane was 'illegal'

UFC referee John McCarthy has weighed in on the debate over Ciryl Gane's interim heavyweight championship win against Alex Pereira at the White House last weekend.

UFC Freedom 250 took place on the South Lawn of the seat of American government and Gane's controversial victory preceded Justin Gaethje's lightweight title win against Ilia Topuria in the main event.

Gane was back in the octagon after his fight against Tom Aspinall ended in a no contest in October. With the interim heavyweight championship up for grabs, he defeated Pereira by TKO in the second round under the giant rigging canopy that was constructed in Donald Trump's garden especially for the occasion.

The French fighter extended his UFC record to 11-2 but the outcome didn't satisfy everyone.

Pereira is expected to appeal the decision, having accused Gane of a series of illegal blows to the back of the head.

Referee Herb Dean bore the brunt of Pereira's immediate reaction and fellow official McCarthy has defended the decision Dean made on the night.

"They were all legal, right to the side of the head, and as he goes in, he starts to go down, and he starts throwing elbows," McCarthy told MMA Junkie.

"What you have to understand is [Gane's] throwing an elbow, but he's also being pushed by Alex, who's grabbing a leg and now pushing forward, which changes as someone's trying to throw something.

"Your target can be changed by the momentum or the push or just the body in motion of the opponent.

"And that's why, in the back, when we're going over our fight instructions, we talk to the fighters and say, 'Look, if you start to open up and you start to hit that person, and you're going after that side trying to target the ears, and then their head moves or their body position moves and you hit them square to the back of the head, it's not on you.'

'You don't see everything'

"When you're looking at it in real time and being in a position that Herb Dean was in, I have a fighter who's in what we call a finishing sequence based upon he had hurt Alex with a good shot, hurt him on the ground with a couple of shots, and they're moving, and Herb decides that none of those are in the position of – and I can't say that Herb saw all of them because you don't see everything as you're trying to move with the fighters."

Other winners at Freedom 250 included Sean O'Malley, Josh Hokit and Mauricio Ruffy.

Gaethje's win over Topuria went the longest. The American forced a corner stoppage at the end of the fourth round, unifying the undisputed lightweight championship after winning the interim belt in January.