Former referee and colour commentator, ‘Big’ John McCarthy has given his thoughts on the recent spat between UFC president, Dana White, heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou and the gold holder’s management — claiming that former light heavyweight contender turned podcaster and comedian, recently minted Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Brendan Schaub had the most success in silencing the promotional leader during their spat three years ago.
Schaub, a former UFC light heavyweight contender, gave his thoughts on the rise of now-middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya three years ago, and questioned if the Nigerian-Kiwi striking would translate to mixed martial arts from kickboxing — before White encouraged Adesanya to deny Schaub’s advice, claiming that the Aurora native was continuously beaten and knocked out during his UFC run.
In a response to White, Schaub claimed that he and the organizational leader were “Eskimo brothers” and they shouldn’t speak to each other in that manner.
Last week, promotional head-honcho, White claimed that Ngannou’s management should not have been surprised at the introduction of an interim heavyweight championship between Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane at UFC 265 in August — encouraging the Cameroonian to find other representation.
This dude (Marquel Martin) is SO FULL OF SH*T!!!” White commented. “He knows EXACTLY what’s going on and isn’t “shocked” at all. Because we told him several times this was coming. His Management is incompetent and hopefully, Francis (Ngannou) starts taking a look at new people to help his career.“
Reflecting on White’s spat with Marquel Martin, podcaster, McCarthy claimed that Schaub had the best response to White — resulting in the silencing from the UFC president.
“Brendan Schaub pulled off the greatest one, ever, with Dana (White),” McCarthy said. “It was just the best. Because back then, Israel Adesanya was (about) to fight, Brendan Schaub made a comment about something, and Dana basically came out saying, ‘Don’t ever listen to him, he couldn’t fight. He got knocked out by everyone,’ all the stuff he said, which was wrong. It was just wrong for Dana to say it.“
“But the response by Brendan (Schaub) was great,” McCarthy explained. “The last thing bein, ‘this is not the way Eskimo brothers act. And if you want to keep talking, I will let everything out.’ I knew exactly what he was talking about, I’m not gonna say what it was. But you noticed that Dana right away had no more comments for Brendan Schuba at this time. Because there was something really there.” (H/T Bloody Elbow)