Referees Herb Dean, Keith Peterson assigned to UFC 169’s dual championship fights
Veteran referees Herb Dean and Keith Peterson have been assigned to UFC 169’s dual championship fights.
New Jersey State Athletic Control Board execs today announced Dean will oversee the main event between UFC bantamweight champ Renan Barao and challenger Urijah Faber, while Peterson steps in the cage for the co-feature with UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo vs. top contender Ricardo Lamas.
The judges for both contests will be 11-time UFC veteran Ricardo Almeida, 25-year martial arts practitioner Eric Colon and New Jersey State Martial Arts Hall of Fame member Cardo Urso.
“UFC 169: Barao vs. Faber†takes place Feb. 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The night’s five-fight main card, including the two championship contests, air on pay-per-view. Four preliminary bouts air on FOX Sports 1 following an additional three contests that stream on UFC Fight Pass.
Barao (31-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) has not lost since his professional debut in April 2005, going 31-1 with a lone no-contest as a blemish over nearly nine years. He debuted in the WEC in 2010 before moving to the UFC, where he quickly went 3-0 before beating Faber for the interim belt. This past February, he stopped Michael McDonald for “Submission of the Night†to defend it in England, then stopped Eddie Wineland in Toronto for “Knockout of the Night†in September.
Barao was expected to have a unification bout with former champ Dominick Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) at UFC 169. However, Cruz’s battle with injuries has left him on the shelf for more than two years, and when he was forced to withdraw from UFC 169 was stripped of his title, allowing for Faber to step into the contest.
Faber (30-6 MMA, 6-2 UFC), meanwhile, bounced back from his loss to Barao to go 4-0 with three submission wins, one of the best campaigns of any non-titleholder in the UFC this past calendar year. In December, he stopped McDonald in the UFC on FOX 9 co-main event for “Submission of the Night.â€
Meanwhile, Aldo (23-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC), the only 145-pound champion in UFC history, is riding a 16-fight winning streak, which includes a perfect 5-0 mark in the octagon following an August win over Chan Sung Jung.
Lamas (13-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) has won four consecutive bouts since moving from the WEC to the UFC. He had hoped a January victory over Erik Koch would earn him a title shot, but the UFC then booked him for a UFC 162 bout with Chan Sung Jung. However, Jung then replaced an injured Anthony Pettis and lost to Aldo, and Lamas was left without an opponent and has been waiting on the sidelines since then.
