FanHouse HerbDean

For better or worse, Roy Nelson and Kimbo Slice are the current talk of the MMA world. After Nelson defeated Slice on Wednesday's episode of The Ultimate Fighter, FanHouse spoke to the former IFL heavyweight champion about some of the criticism he has since received from Dana White and the fans, Herb Dean's decision to not stop the fight in the first round and Kimbo Slice's entourage.

The full interview is below.

We knew heading into this season of The Ultimate Fighter that Roy Nelson is bigger, stronger and more skillful than Kimbo Slice, and that Kimbo needs to get better on the ground. So in one respect, Nelson's second-round TKO victory over Kimbo on Wednesday night's episode of the UFC's reality show didn't teach us much.

But even though Nelson beat Kimbo decisively, I came away from their fight more convinced than I was before that Kimbo is worthy of fighting in the UFC. I also came away more convinced than I was before that Nelson is the favorite to win this season's Ultimate Fighter tournament.

On May 15, Billy Evangelista walked out of the cage at the Strikeforce event in Fresno having suffered the first loss of his career in controversial fashion. But now the California State Athletic Commission has changed the result of Evangelista's fight with Mike Aina to a no contest, making Evangelista undefeated again.

The May 15 fight ended when Evangelista pinned Aina against the cage and landed a hard knee that left Aina dazed and unable to keep fighting. Referee Herb Dean ruled that Evangelista had landed the knee to Aina's head while Aina's knee was on the ground, which is illegal in MMA. As a result, Dean disqualified Evangelista.

But as you can see in the photo on the right, Evangelista's knee actually hit Aina's shoulder, which is a legal blow. So Evangelista should have been declared the winner by TKO.

Herb Dean is one of the best referees in mixed martial arts, but even the best make mistakes. And Dean made a big one Friday night when he disqualified Billy Evangelista for what TV replays and the photo on the right showed was a legal knee to the shoulder of Mike Aina in the main event of the Strikeforce Challengers show.

Dean thought Evangelista had landed an illegal knee to Aina's head while Aina was on the ground. So when Aina couldn't continue fighting because of a possible jaw injury, Dean awarded the fight to Aina by disqualification. That, however, was the wrong ruling.

WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres defended his title against Yoshiro Maeda tonight in Sacramento, with three rounds of tremendous action ending when Maeda's severely swollen right eye prevented him from continuing.

The fight got off to a blistering pace in the first round, with Maeda opening up a gash on Torres' face within the first minute and Torres responding with versatile fighting skills, doing damage both on his feet and on the ground.

In the second round they traded strikes on their feet, went to the ground and had an intense moment where both athletes were going for heel hook submissions simultaneously. The round ended with Torres drilling Maeda repeatedly but unable to finish him.

Notes on a trip to Las Vegas.

Note: People planning to watch UFC 84 who don't want to know the results of the pre-taped undercard might want to skip this post.

CBS and EliteXC are doing something very smart as they prepare for the first mixed martial arts broadcast on network television: They're trying to educate the public about the sport. As part of that effort, here's MMA referee Herb Dean demonstrating some of the rules, on a video on the official CBS YouTube channel:

Dean doesn't say anything that will come as news to hard-core MMA fans, but to casual fans and non-fans, it's good to have a basic background of the rules of the sport -- and that there are far more rules related to basic safety of the fighter than the average person realizes.