Sean O'Malley reveals what Alex Pereira told Herb Dean in rules meeting before White House defeat to Ciryl Gane
On the lawn of the White House, UFC Freedom 250 held no prisoners, with blockbuster fights and face-changing finishes.
The big talk of the night came with underdog Justin Gaethje shocking the US crowd with a stunning defeat of Ilia Topuria, who was hardly recognisable after the fight.
But the UFC spectacle wasn't without controversy, as Alex Pereira suffered damage to the back of his head in a defeat to Ciryl Gane, with many claiming that the shots were illegal and unnoticed by referee Herb Dean.
Pereira took to social media the day after the fight to show extensive swelling on the back of his skull, with large bumps appearing on the part of the head that is off limits to elbow blows.
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Issuing a public complaint against Dean, the Brazilian fighter asked for the referee's removal to prevent it from happening again.
Dean responded with a candid explanation of his calls, heading back to social media with a minute-long video, but Pereira has continued to claim that the shots were illegal.
Now, UFC Freedom 250 star Sean O'Malley revealed that Pereira and Dean even had a discussion on these exact rules before the fight, with Gane having gone unpunished for head shots in the past.
Sean O'Malley reveals Alex Pereira asked for 'back of the head' clarification before Gane fight
Going into the fight, Gane was already in the line of fire for a controversial contest against Tom Aspinall, where the star fighter suffered a brutal eye injury.
With that in mind, Pereira asked for clarification on certain rules as the referees met with the fighters before the action started for the night.
Freedom 250 winner Sean O'Malley was in earshot of the conversation, and has now revealed that the Brazilian asked Dean specifically about the head shots.
"You know what’s funny, in the rules meeting when Pereira was talking to the ref, they were having the translator go over, like, ‘Back of the head,’” O’Malley said on YouTube.
“Because I remember when Gane finished JDS [Junior dos Santos] by elbowing him in the back of the head when he was kind of turned away. That's why they were talking about the back of the head.”
The explanation from Dean hasn't stopped the complaints from Pereira, who has continued his complaints in an upload to YouTube.
"I told him beforehand," he said. "I think it’s hard to put myself in the referee’s shoes. My opponent is there, he starts striking, and the ref is seeing that they are illegal shots.
"But he thinks like this: ‘How am I going to stop this fight?’
“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 ask, ‘Why did you stop it?’, say, ‘Look at the video.’ In that scenario, people would 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 referee should have faced legal consequences for that.”
For O'Malley at least, his win over Aiemann Zahabi ended with a salute emote before his opponent hit the canvas.
Jack Marsh