Who is Herb Dean?
Herb Dean is a UFC professional martial arts referee (Ultimate Fighting Champion). Herb Dean’s net worth currently stands at 2.5 million dollars. He also used to fight in his early days before beginning his referee career. His outstanding performance during his fighting career plays a significant role in his job as a referee.
Herb Dean’s Net Worth and Other Stats
After being in the middle of more than 5000 matches across the globe as a professional referee, Dean Herb has been able to build impressive stats for himself. Herb Dean’s net worth in 2021 totaled 2.5 million dollars. Below are more stats about Herb Dean:
- Commonly known as: Herb Dean
- Full name/ official name: Herbert Dean
- Gender: Male
- Age: 51 years old
- Date of birth: 30th September 1970
- Place of birth: Pasadena, California, United States
- Nationality: American
- Ethnicity: Afro-American
- Weight: 198 pounds (90 Kilograms)
- Height: 6.06 feet (1.85 meters)
- Marital status: Married
- Sexual orientation: Straight
- 2022 total net worth: $2 million
This referee loves to lay low when it comes to his personal life. Herb Dean’s wife is Victoria Dean. This couple got together some time back. Herb Dean’s wife is from Russia, while Dean is from the USA. Despite having different nationalities, they have stuck together and even have two kids. Their kids are Quinn Dean and Ashanta Dean.
How much does Herb Dean make? As a referee, he earns more than $380,000 per year. Therefore, Herb Dean’s salary is not less than $1,500 per fight. From this fact, it is clear that officiating the Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC) fights works for him.
Dean Herb also adds to his net worth by working as a professional judge on several MMA promotions. In addition, his career as an actor also contributes to his annual income. In 2012, he was cast in the movie Here Comes the Boom. In 2017 he also had a role in the film A Violent Man. Lastly, The Divine Fury, back in 2019, also had him on board.
Other investments also come in when speaking of Herb Dean’s total net worth. He earns more income from other businesses in and out of the country. Some of these investments do not directly relate to his primary professions. Despite making a lot of fortune from different sources, Herb lives a simple, modest life.
The Herb Dean Story
Herb Dean’s Early Life
He was born on 30th September 1970. His place of birth was in California, USA. At only nine years old, Dean began taking martial arts training. His passion for this sport was fueled further by the time he got into his teens. By this time, jiu-jitsu and judo were his best martial arts disciplines.
By the time Herb reached 23 years of age, he had begun to participate in Kenpo. This training took place under the late Frank Trejo. At this time, Trejo was a 9th black belt degree. The first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competition began during this period.
During this time, Herb Dean had various advantages. One of the advantages was that his training partner Frazier Zane was on the first card of UFC. Dean was getting a lot of motivation from this fact.
His skills began to rise to another level when he became a second Dan Black belter in jiu-jitsu.
Herb Dean’s Career
Dean has taken part in various fields professionally. All these fields relate to the martial arts specialization. Some of the leading careers paths he’s had include:
- Fighting career (MMA)
- Acting career
- Teaching career
Fighting Career
The Herb Dean fights have been so memorable. He has a record of more than three professional MMA fights. Herb was able to defeat Randy Halmot through submission back in 2001. This win proved his hard work and determination since his first match as a professional fighter. “Bronco” became Dean’s new nickname from the win, meaning the feral horse.
After several months, Herb was in the cage again. Finally, he got to fight against Joe Riggs and lost. This result became his first loss as a professional fighter.
Herb was not backing down. He got in the cage again. This time, he faced Timothy Mendoza at the KOTC 39: Hitmaster tournament. Dean successfully won this match using a total knockout (TKO).
After 2003 Herb Dean’s fighting career was climbing to different heights. He got two more matches against Dave Legeno and Jung Gyu. Unfortunately, he lost these two matches. After these two results, he began getting into other fields of martial arts.
Even though Herb was already in the referee industry by 2004, he managed to get back into the cage one more time as a fighter. This time the event was the Spirit MC9, which took place on 8 October 2006. South Korea was the host of this match. Unfortunately, Herb lost this match in only two rounds. Herb Dean lost by submission in 3:51 minutes.
In 2007, Herb Dean took to the cage one more time. The event was Cage Range 22, held in London, England. The date of this match was 14th July. In this fight, his opponent was Legeno. The fight took only five minutes and one round, in which Herb lost. An eye injury was the leading cause of the loss. Even though he lost, this match was significant to him. This event marked his retirement.
Referee Career
How long has Herb Dean been a ref? From 2004, he began to officiate professional matches. As a referee, he has officiated more than 3500 professional MMA bouts. In the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he has overseen more than 200 fights.
Dean has impressed many people with his refereeing skills on several occasions. Dana White, the UFC president, openly termed Dean as the “most excellent referee in the whole history of MMA.”
As a professional referee, he has overseen many significant fights. One of the most legendary matches that Dean officiated was the UFC Heavyweight Championship. The fight was between Frank Mir and Sylvia Tim on 19th June 2004.
This match became the most memorable event for Herb Dean. That fact comes because he stopped the fight entirely after 50 seconds. He forced the battle to come to a complete end, claiming that Sylvia Tim was injured. He contended that Sylvia’s forearm broke due to the armbar wrestling technique.
There was quite an argument before these two fighters got out of the cage. Tim Sylvia claimed that he was fine and that his arm was in perfect condition to continue fighting. Herb refused Sylvia’s claims and said he heard the arm snap.
In the end, the match ended. Later on, Dr. Margaret Goodman did special medical examinations of Sylvia’s arm and agreed with Herb that the arm was not in good shape. An X-ray scan showed that the arm was severely broken and even needed surgery.
After a while, it became clear that Dean had saved Sylvia’s career by stopping that fight in time. Later on, during an interview, Sylvia thanked Dean for forcing the fight to end. Sylvia even went ahead to admit that he knew Frank Mir broke his arm, but he still wanted to go on with the match. His career would have ended if his arm had suffered further injury.
On the 8th of July 2006, Dean officiated another famous fight. This event was between Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz. This match marked the second time these two professional fighters met again in the cage.
During this match, Dean stopped the fight and awarded victory to Ortiz. The fight only lasted one round for a total period of 70 seconds. His opponent Shamrock disagreed with the results, so he went on protest. All of Shamrock’s protests against Dean were in vain. All the officials looked closely and concluded that the match was fair.
Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock took to the cage once again later on. Unfortunately, Ken Shamrock lost again and accepted the results. However, this time he acknowledged that the match was fair.
Another memorable match that Herb refereed was between Gabriel Gonzaga and Mirko Cross. This match was in 2007. During this fight, Dean officiated from the guard position. Gonzaga knocked Mirko out with a head kick and won the game fairly.
Teaching Career
In addition to being a professional referee, Dean still facilitates professional judging and refereeing courses for aspiring judges and referees. Classroom lectures together with other presentations are merged into these training sessions. The expressions that the students deal with cover several areas. Some of these areas are:
- Judging guidelines
- Scoring criteria
- ABC Unified rules
Written tests are also represented in the course. For further learning and understanding of the students, Herb brings in the addition of video material. These materials include several discussions about the subjects at hand, calibration of scoring, and mock judging.
Acting Career
Herb has also made several appearances in some movies despite teaching and fighting. For example, Dean had a role in Devine Fury, a Korean action film. This movie has vast relations with martial arts. The movie involves a kid acquiring divine powers and rising, becoming an MMA fighter.
Final Thoughts
Dean has worked for many prestigious fighting organizations. These involvements have earned him a lot of fame and more additions to his assets at the same time. His passion for martial arts is indeed indescribable.