Dustin Poirier’s 2023 fight against Islam Makhachev should have been stopped in the 4th…

Hah. That "phone booth" crack? Herb Dean’s got a better rep than a street pharmacist—so let’s actually dig into what the tapes show in round four instead of pretending a strawberry shortcake makes a ref decision.

wanna see herb dean’s brain short-circuit mid-fight? cuz i did in round 4 when makhachev started picking poirier apart like a butcher on a lazy tuesday 🤬 Dustin was wobbling, chin bouncing off ropes, breathing like a dying lawnmower—how is THAT "let's see how it goes" territory?! Herb’s out there calling it a scrap while makhachev’s walking him down with body shots that felt like hammers 🔨💀 Either the refs got shares in makhachev tea or they forgot poirier’s the TUF vet who grinds through hell itself—didn’t matter, herb played tiddlywinks with Dustin’s wellbeing!

JackFan1973, you nailed it with the imagery—Dustin wasn’t just "wobbling," he was absorbing. The 2023 interim title fight at UFC 284 in Perth? Makhachev didn’t just land body shots, he landed 16 significant strikes to the torso in round four alone, according to FightMetric. That’s not "let’s see how it goes" territory; that’s a shellacking. Herb Dean’s inaction wasn’t oversight—it was a full-blown refusal to act when the evidence was screaming for a stoppage. Dustin’s chin has absorbed Gaethje’s haymakers for 15 rounds, sure, but those weren’t body shots followed by a relentless top-game pressure like Makhachev brought.

tell you what, round four of that whole mess felt like watching some sad uncle at a wedding getting danced into the ground by the groom's drunk cousins and everyone just stood there clapping along because "the uncle’s tough, right?" back in the day we had refs who’d step in before things got this pretty—remember the old split-guard ref days? if you ate half a dozen clean knees in one minute on the floor they didn’t wait for the judges to phone it in, Herb or no Herb. i still got the grainy pay-per-view still where Herb’s just standing three feet away when Makhachev’s got Dustin draped over the ropes like a wet towel and he lets the choke rip unanswered—it’s like he swapped his brain for a vending machine that only dispenses peanuts and apologies.

You ever drop your phone in a puddle at 2am and spend the next hour cursing while prying the back off with a butter knife? That's exactly how I felt watching round four of Poirier-Makhachev, except instead of a wet circuit board, I was watching Dustin's chin short out like a blown fuse—temporary fix from Herb Dean and back in the storm it goes. JackFan1973 said it perfect with the butcher imagery, but here's where I file my caveat: Herb's not some malicious actor with shares in Makhachev tea, he's following the rulebook as written, and that book's got more loopholes than the 2021 tax code. I coached youth MMA for two years in Scarborough—you ever see a 16-year-old girl take 12 clean body shots to the ribs, stagger twice, and the coach pulls the plug? Not in the white-belt divisions; the refs would let her eat another six before stopping. The gap between amateur rules and elite interpretation is wider than the Don Valley. Herb Dean was stuck in that gap, and Dustin's chin paid the toll.

How long we gonna pretend Herb Dean’s got some kinda divine right to let our boy eat like a piñata at a frat house? 🤡 Round four wasn’t “close calls” territory—it was two minutes of Dustin getting folded into a human origami while Herb stood there like a mannequin in a Dick’s Sporting Goods. 20 seconds in and Makhachev lands that left uppercut to the ribs that had Dustin’s eyes bugging out like he just seen his ex at the bar with a better credit score. Remember the clip where Dustin gags after the choke snaps tight? That’s not “tough” that’s “body’s firing shutdown protocols.” The UFC’s own rulebook says “protect the fighter from further harm”—where’s the protection when your ref’s got more hesitation than a university student on exam day? Herb’s inaction wasn’t oversight; it was a silent surrender. C’mon, lads—our guy’s built different, sure, but even Gaethje’s haymakers don’t come tagged with six clean body shots per minute and a top game piled on top like a bricklayer’s lunch break. Dustin’s the people’s champion; maybe it’s time Herb treated him like one.

Mate, you lot are losing the plot here—Herb Dean’s been reffing high-level fights since before half of y’all were born! 😭 Round four was grim, yeah, but crying “PIÑATA” like Dustin’s just some sacrificial lamb? Nah, our boy’s grits soaked up worse in the brawl against Gaethje—15 rounds of pain and he still had juice left for the bus ride home. And bodies? Aye, Makhachev landed clean shots, but have you checked the damage to HIM? Dustin’s boxing kept him from eating a freakin’ guillotine in every scramble. That choke image everyone’s screenshotting? Dustin wriggled out with 30 seconds left, Herb waited for the fade—classic instinct, not neglect. The real scandal is how Herb’s supposedly soft for every other fight on the card when he’s the one who waved off the Rob Font finish last week—FOUR knockdowns, ref jumped in faster than a caffeine-addled squirrel. Consistency’s for coffee shops, not cages.

Look, I’ll be blunt—TrueFanFan’s got the stamina wires crossed on this one. Yeah, Herb’s an old hand, sure, but old hands can go blind just like the rest of us when the lights go out and the action’s thick as smoke. That Rob Font stoppage last week? Four knockdowns and the ref’s in there like his pants are on fire—standard procedure, textbook, no arguments. Then flip the channel to Poirier-Makhachev and suddenly it’s “wait and see”? That’s not consistency, mate, that’s a full-blown identity crisis with a lanyard. And let’s park the “guillotine spiel” for a tick. Dustin’s wriggled out before, we all know that, but wriggling out after eating a six-minute body-shot express train is a different beast entirely. Sixteen significant torso shots in one round isn’t just “clean damage”—it’s structural weakening. You don’t need a calculator to see the foundation buckling when the builder’s using sledgehammers instead of trowels. Remember Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald in 2015? Early rounds were a war, same relentless pressure, but Herb stepped in at the first real falter because the writing wasn’t just on the wall—it was in bloody six-foot neon letters. Dustin’s toughness? Legendary. Dustin getting turned into human origami by a welterweight grappler from Dagestan? Not a part of the legend, and Herb Dean let the paper get cut too fine that night.

Just when I thought we’d all agree Herb Dean had lost the plot, the Rob Font stoppage from last week pops up like a rogue referee with a white cane—suddenly Poirier’s beating becomes nothing but good, clean suffering and Makhachev’s pressure just part of the evening’s entertainment. Makhachev’s torso work alone in round four reads like a highlight reel from a bodybuilder contest judging, sixteen clean shots where every one lands with the snap of a wet towel on concrete, but Herb’s still sipping his coffee while the rest of us are screaming at the screen like it’s the last bus home. And sure, Dustin’s the guy who once cooked his own steak with Gaethje’s knuckles, but that doesn’t mean he signed up to be a piñata strung up between the ropes so Makhachev could practice his ceilings-and-drips workout. What sticks with me isn’t the toughness debate at all—it’s the plain fact that the rulebook Herb’s supposedly reading has a chapter missing, because 30 seconds after that choke lands and Dustin’s vision’s swimming like a goldfish in a blender, there’s no emergency light flashing, just Herb calmly waiting for the dimmer switch to hit off.