Herb Dean, a seasoned official, will be the third guy in the cage. He’ll be there when Leon Edwards and Colby Covington duke it out for the welterweight title at UFC 296.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission gave the thumbs up for referee and judging assignments for the two championship bouts on Tuesday. These fights are the main events at Saturday’s card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Dean, who’s been the man in the middle for Edwards’ last four fights, will pocket a cool $2,600 for his efforts.
Remember Covington’s last time in the Octagon? It was a five-round decision over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272. Guess who was the referee? Yep, Dean.
As for the judges at cageside for the UFC 296 main event, we’ve got Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato, and Chris Lee. They’ll each be taking home $2,300. Lee, interestingly, had a 48-46 score for Edwards in his majority decision victory against Kamaru Usman at UFC 286 in March.
Marc Goddard will be the referee for the flyweight title bout. This fight is between Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval, and it’s the co-main event at UFC 296. Like Dean, Goddard’s paycheck will be $2,600.
The judges for this flyweight bout are Eric Colon, Junichiro Kamijo, and Ron McCarthy. They’ll each earn $2,300. Kamijo was one of two judges who had a 48-47 scorecard for Pantoja in his split-decision win over Brandon Moreno at UFC 290 in July.
The UFC 296 main card will be available on pay-per-view via ESPN+ starting at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. Early prelims will be streamed on ESPN+ at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT. After that, it’ll switch to ESPN2 and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.