Herb Dean made one of the best stoppages in UFC history to prevent Alexander Volkanovski seriously hurting the Korean Zombie at UFC 273

Referee Herb Dean ended up being the hero in the main event of UFC 273 as he made one of the best stoppages of his career.

Alexander Volkanovski retained his UFC featherweight title after destroying the Korean Zombie – Chan Sung Jong – in the final fight of UFC 273.

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The Australian lit Jong up from the get-go and the Korean Zombie – making history as the the fighter with the longest amount of time between title shots in UFC history at over 2,000 days – had no answers for Volkonovski’s electric attacks.

The fight made it into the championship rounds, but at the end of the third round the Korean Zombie barely knew where he was after a barrage of punches left him lying on the canvas `t the bell.

He struggled to pull himself to his corner and simply at against the cage while his team attended to him.

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As the fourth round started, Volkanovski could be seen asking “Are you sure?” towards the Korean Zombie and while sincere, that drew a smile and a nod from the challenger.

It was only moments later that Volkanovski rattled the Korean Zombie once again and Dean, who had been watching the battered challenger closely anyway, took the opportunity to call a halt to the fight even though Jung wasn’t knocked down.

“He actually took a lot more than I wanted him to,” Volkanovski said at the post-show press conference. “I thought they could’ve stopped it a bit earlier. I started feeling bad in there.”

Dean has been universally praised for stepping in and preventing any further damage for Jung.

Fighting is a sport built on pride and ego. Many fighters pride themselves on ‘dying on their shield’ and that mantra is exactly how Jung got the Korean Zombie nickname.

No doubt he would have kept fighting until Volkanovski turned his lights out and who knows how bad the damage would have been by that point. Dean saved the Korean Zombie from his own courage.

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At the end of the fight, champion and challenger shared a long hug inside the octagon and the Korean Zombie appeared to shed tears as he knelt on the mat. He openly questioned whether he’ll keep fighting in the post-fight interview.

Volkanovski is now just one of five fighters to start his career at 11-0 or better in the UFC, per ESPN Stats and Info. The others are all-time greats: Anderson Silva, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Royce Gracie and Kamaru Usman.