Veteran official Herb Dean will be the third man in the cage when
Leon
Edwards and Colby
Covington square off for the welterweight crown at
UFC 296.
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The Nevada State Athletic Commission on Tuesday approved referee
and judging assignments for the two championship bouts atop
Saturday’s card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Dean, who has
officiated Edwards’ last four fights, will be paid $2,600 for his
work. Dean also oversaw Covington’s last Octagon appearance, a
five-round verdict over Jorge
Masvidal at UFC 272.
Meanwhile, Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato and Chris Lee will serve as
cageside judges for the UFC 296 headliner. They will earn $2,300
apiece. Lee submitted a 48-46 tally for Edwards in the Englishman’s
majority decision triumph against Kamaru
Usman at UFC 286 this past March.
Marc Goddard will referee the flyweight title bout between Alexandre
Pantoja and Brandon
Royval in the UFC 296 co-main event. Like Dean, Goddard will be
paid $2,600. Eric Colon, Junichiro Kamijo and Ron McCarthy will
score the flyweight bout and be paid $2,300 each. Kamijo was one of
two judges who submitted a 48-47 scorecard for Pantoja in his
split-decision triumph over Brandon
Moreno at UFC 290 this past July.
The UFC 296 main card will air on pay-per-view via ESPN+ beginning
at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. Early prelims stream on ESPN+ at 6 p.m.
ET/3 p.m. PT before shifting to ESPN2 and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m.
PT.