Herb Dean Restarts TUF 34 Fight With 50 Seconds Left After Stoppage

Q: Why did both coaches condemn Herb Dean's crucial late-fight restart during the intense bantamweight semifinal?

Both Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier condemned Herb Dean’s late restart because they believed Xavier Franklin had already earned a legitimate stoppage and that the sequence should have ended there. Their view was based on the timing of the action. Akylbek Uulu signaled that something was wrong with his eye, but Dean had not clearly halted the fight before Franklin continued attacking. Franklin then landed the decisive right hand as Uulu was still expected to defend himself. Both coaches pointed to the core MMA standard: fighters must protect themselves at all times unless the referee has unmistakably stopped the action. The controversy deepened because Dean initially appeared to stop the bout, then switched to a video review after Uulu protested an eye poke. Once replay suggested contact to the eye, Dean allowed the fight to resume with about 50 seconds left. Bisping and Cormier argued that even if there had been an eye poke, the stoppage came too late to erase what happened next, because Franklin’s finishing sequence unfolded before any clear break in the action was communicated. That restart mattered enormously. Franklin had been losing the fight on control and wrestling and likely needed a finish in the third round. The pause wiped out his momentum, gave Akylbek Uulu recovery time, and after the restart Uulu secured one more takedown to win the decision. That is why both coaches saw the restart as the wrong call and the key turning point in the semifinal.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Sports · Aug 11

50 seconds from the end, Herb Dean halted Xavier Franklin's apparent third-round finish of Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu, then resumed the TUF 34 semifinal after an eye-poke protest and video review.
Dean was heard telling Akylbek Uulu, "You're done, stop," before later saying, after a commissioner's question, that he had only called time and could restart the bout.
Akylbek Uulu then survived to the horn and won a decision on earlier wrestling control, because Franklin needed a late finish to overturn the first two rounds.
Michael Bisping said Franklin had already earned the stoppage and cited the "defend yourself at all times" rule, while viewers criticized Dean's handling and the unclear replay evidence.
The result sends Akylbek Uulu into the TUF 34 bantamweight final against either Christian Strong or Mehemmedeli Osmanli.