Alex Pereira has hit out at Herb Dean for not pausing his fight with Ciryl Gane, alleging that the referee overlooked numerous “illegal” strikes.On Sunday, Gane stopped Pereira in the second round of their fight at the UFC’s White House event, winning the interim heavyweight title in the process.In doing so, the Frenchman denied Pereira the chance to become the UFC’s first-ever three-weight champion. However, much of the fallout has been coloured by accusations that Gane landed illegal strikes during the finishing sequence.Ciryl Gane (centre) during his win over Alex Pereira (Getty)Gane appeared to land numerous blows to the back of Pereira’s head, with the Brazilian now calling out his opponent but also Dean.“He always does that, multiple fights,” Pereira said of Gane on his YouTube channel. “If you look at his highlights, that’s what you’ll see all the time. “I was being very careful about that: finger in the eye, kick to the groin; that isn’t supposed to happen, but it does. But on the back of the head? You’re right there, man, you have to be seeing it [...] and the referee was right there to see it.“The day before the fight, we had a rules meeting, I asked Plinio [team member] to translate for [Dean]. I told him [...] ‘This guy has a long history of dirty shots, throwing punches to the back of the head, elbows [...] I asked him to keep an eye on it.”Of the fight-ending sequence itself, Pereira said: “I was getting up, it became difficult to recover. I believe, if it wasn’t for those shots, I’d be in that situation and could’ve possibly recovered. Maybe not, but they were very hard shots and illegal. “I think it’s hard to put myself in the referee’s shoes. [If he had paused the fight,] people give him credit as a man, but now he is not a man. He shouldn’t be refereeing that fight. To be honest, a guy like that should be punished [...] I have no respect for him whatsoever.”Pereira, 38, also shared images of swelling on the back of his head, writing on Instagram: “This will only change when the fighters fight to remove the referee who makes these kinds of mistakes. Let’s prevent this from happening to you! We have the strength to do it! I guarantee it!”Gane seemed to land numerous illegal blows to the back of Alex Pereira’s head (Getty)Dean also took to Instagram, recording a video with a colleague do explain the rules and demonstrate his explanations.“I can tell by some of the comments online that I owe you guys an explanation about the rules and how I refereed the fight,” Dean said. “First of all, all respect to both fighters. I’m talking about Gane and Pereira, amazing fight.“The rule we’re talking about is the back of the head, and that’s confusing, because it’s different than boxing. The way we enforce this rule is: we focus on the nape of the neck, and that’s really what the rule should be called.“The nape of the neck or occipital junction also [affects] the spine and covers a line right here [on the back of the head, from the top to the midway point] with one-inch variance to either side.“This is what we’d go over in the rules meeting. I’d let them know that this area [the back of the neck] is a foul, off limits; that this area [the side of the back of the head] is a fair blow; here [the other side of the back of the head] is a fair blow; here [the back of the neck] is a foul.“Hopefully that’s useful to you guys and cleared things up.” Yet some fans online accused Gane of hitting the areas that Dean had labelled illegal.Tom Aspinall was left badly injured by Gane’s eye pokes in October (AFP)Pereira is a former middleweight champion and two-time light-heavyweight champion. He vacated the light-heavyweight belt earlier this year to move up to heavyweight.In beating Pereira, Gane became a two-time interim champion and is now expected to get a fourth shot at undisputed gold. In 2022, he was beaten by Francis Ngannou in a unification fight; in 2023, he was submitted by then-champion Jon Jones; and in October, his multiple eye pokes led to a no-contest against title-holder Tom Aspinall.Aspinall subsequently required double eye surgery, and he only recently returned to training. The Briton has welcomed a rematch with Gane later this year, although he said he thought the Frenchman’s strikes against Pereira looked “very illegal”.Gane has called for a rematch with Aspinall to be held in Paris, France, where the UFC has scheduled an event for September.