Herb Dean stands by UFC 211 ‘no contest’ call, Dustin Poirier to appeal to claim win bonus - ‘That’s my daughter’s college fund’

Dustin Poirier plans to appeal referee Herb Dean’s decision to rule his fight against Eddie Alvarez at UFC 211 this past weekend (Sat., May 13, 2017) a “no contest” with Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TLDR). And he’s doing it for the sole purpose of getting his full fight purse ... not to improve his record.

That’s according to Luke Thomas, who got the word straight from the horse’s mouth.

Alvarez clipped Poirier with three illegal knees during their Lightweight tilt, knocking him out of commission in Dallas and prompting Dean to rule the fight a “no contest” instead of awarding a disqualification win to Poirier because he deemed Eddies’ strikes accidental (relive it here).

It’s an explanation that didn’t sit too well with Poirier.

“I’m protected by these rules,” Poirier told MMA Junkie. “I think he’s trying to cover his own ass. Any time somebody strikes somebody with a blow, it’s intentional. I don’t understand. He didn’t trip me and kick me on the ground – he intentionally kneed me on the ground.

“Human error is just too in the way when stuff happens like that, when adrenaline is pumping,” continued. “You make a split-second call in the heat of the moment, and you might be behind the guy a little bit or be at an angle and not see what’s going on. Any of that stuff, Herb warned Eddie. And I’m not saying Eddie’s a dirty guy or intentionally did that — the guy’s a clean fighter, and he was just trying to win. But, he might have been dazed. He obviously was still hurt from those shots I landed, and he might have just been fighting on instinct. I hope that. I don’t know.”

At the end of the day, Poirier is upset that money was taken from him and his family because of a blown call.

“I earned that money for my family — that’s my daughter’s college fund,” he said. “I’m a prizefighter, and somebody made a call and took away the opportunity for me to make my money. I want my compensation, and I want a rematch,” he added.

For his part, Dean stands by his decision and took to “The MMA Hour” to explain why.

“I definitely stand by that, ruling it a no-contest. His head was over Poirier’s back,” Dean said. “I can’t imagine a way where he’d be able to see his hands or his knees. I believe that he was fighting in earnest and thought that the fighter was not grounded. There’s no way I could say that for certain. I attempted to warn him before he went in with that knee, but it was loud in there and I can’t say that he heard me. I don’t believe that he was trying to fight outside of the rules when he threw that knee. I can’t say that he was,” explained the long-time official.

Dean went on to give his definition of a downed opponent.

“I rule a downed opponent as supporting weight,” Dean said. “Obviously, if someone’s weight is being supported by their feet and the fence and then they reach down and touch their fingers, there’s lots of gamesmanship that used to go on with that. So we started quite a long time ago, it’s very established, that we rule a downed opponent as supporting weight. Supporting weight means if you snatch their hand away, they’re gonna fall on their face.”

Now we wait to see who the TLDR sides with and whether or not UFC decides to implement instant replay for all events moving forward to further avoid issues like this.