Herb Dean's Confusing Eye-Poke Call Overshadows TUF 34 Bantamweight Semi

Herb Dean is back in the middle of a mess, and this time it played out on the latest episode of The Ultimate Fighter 34. In a bantamweight semifinal between Team Bisping's Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu and Xavier Franklin, Dean waved off the bout in the final minute after Franklin landed a hard right hand — telling Akylbek Uulu flatly that he was done — only to reverse course when the losing fighter protested an eye poke.

Dean called for a video review, then restarted the fight with :50 remaining. Akylbek Uulu, who'd banked the first two rounds on wrestling control and needed only to survive, went on to win the decision. Franklin, who looked like he'd finished the job with a third-round stoppage, walked away with nothing.

A Finish, Then a Do-Over

The sequence was the kind of thing that makes commissions nervous. Akylbek Uulu appeared hurt, then signaled something was wrong with his eye. Dean said nothing at that moment, Franklin kept firing, and the big right hand prompted the stoppage. Cageside, Dana White, Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping talked it over while a commissioner asked Dean whether a restart was even possible. Dean's answer: he could, because he'd already called time.

Bisping, in the awkward spot of coaching both men, sided with Franklin's frustration. He described watching his fighter land the finish and thinking he'd pulled off a comeback, only for the slow-motion replay to reveal what officials ruled was a poke. Bisping said he wasn't disputing whether the poke happened — his point was that Franklin finished cleanly, and the rule is to defend yourself at all times.

The replay showed Franklin's hand open as he pawed at Akylbek Uulu's face, but whether there was actual contact to the eye stayed murky. That ambiguity is exactly why viewers hammered Dean for how he steered the whole thing — a stoppage, a protest, a review, then a reset, all inside 60 seconds.

It's not new territory for Dean, who's drawn criticism for in-cage errors more than once in recent years. Whatever you think of the call, the fallout is settled: Akylbek Uulu advances to the TUF 34 bantamweight final, where he'll meet either Team Cormier's Christian Strong or fellow Bisping fighter Mehemmedeli Osmanli. Franklin, meanwhile, is left with a question that no replay could answer for him.