Tag: John McCarthy

John McCarthy Offers Opinion On Ben Askren vs. Robbie Lawler Controversy

Ben Askren finally made his UFC debut, and it came with quite a large amount of controversy. Askren fought former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler on the UFC 235 pay-per-view (PPV) main card. Right out the gate, Lawler looked like he was going to give Askren a brutal welcoming. He slammed “Funky” to the mat […]

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Ben Askren finally made his UFC debut, and it came with quite a large amount of controversy.

Askren fought former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler on the UFC 235 pay-per-view (PPV) main card. Right out the gate, Lawler looked like he was going to give Askren a brutal welcoming. He slammed “Funky” to the mat hard before busting him open on the ground. However, Askren got to his feet, established dominant position on the ground, and sunk in a bulldog choke.

In real-time, it looked like Lawler’s arm went limp and he was rendered unconscious. Referee Herb Dean stepped in and waved the action off. However, Lawler immediately shot up to his feet and began protesting the stoppage. “Ruthless” said he was never out, and even threw up a thumbs up right before Dean stepped in to pull Askren off.

Despite the controversy, Askren was officially declared the winner via first-round submission. UFC President Dana White agreed that the stoppage was a bad one. However, the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) agrees with Askren, that Lawler went limp and the stoppage was justified.

Current Bellator MMA commentator and former longtime referee John McCarthy has offered his take on the issue. McCarthy took to Twitter and agreed that Dean made a mistake in stopping the fight too early, but said we’re all human and make mistakes:

“Obviously not. We are all human and we all make mistakes”

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John McCarthy Weighs In On Cejudo vs. Dillashaw Stoppage

Renowned referee and current Bellator color commentator “Big” John McCarthy has spoken out on the Henry Cejudo vs. T.J. Dillashaw stoppage. On Jan. 19, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) made its debut on ESPN+. In the main event, Cej…

Renowned referee and current Bellator color commentator “Big” John McCarthy has spoken out on the Henry Cejudo vs. T.J. Dillashaw stoppage. On Jan. 19, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) made its debut on ESPN+. In the main event, Cejudo put his flyweight championship on the line against bantamweight kingpin Dillashaw. Cejudo ended up winning the […]

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‘Big John’ Sounds Off On Darren Till vs. Wonderboy Decision

Do you agree with Big John?

The post ‘Big John’ Sounds Off On Darren Till vs. Wonderboy Decision appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Aside from a bevy of MMA action from the United Kingdom, the sport saw a bit of controversy last weekend when hometown favorite Darren Till outlasted Stephen Thompson by unanimous decision in the main event of Sunday’s (May 27, 2018) UFC Liverpool from the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.

The scores, which featured two head-scratching 49-46 totals for Till in a fight many felt ‘Wonderboy’ had won outright, were met with a predictable backlash from the collective MMA community online, although Thompson himself wouldn’t make any excuses and said he would simply go back to the drawing board.

Many were far more incensed that he was, however, as a large portion of prominent figures in the sport voiced their displeasure at what had transpired in the UFC’s first trip to Liverpool. That includes longtime MMA referee and current Bellator commentator ‘Big John’ McCarthy, who spoke up on Twitter to detail his views on the fight.

In his eyes, Till’s pressuring and octagon control wasn’t enough to defeat Thompson, whom he felt landed the cleaner strikes:

“Sorry but controlling the Octagon does not give you the round. landed the cleaner harder shots in the first 3 rounds. Sad that people that are supposed to know about the sport are lacking greatly in their knowledge of what is scored in a round.”

McCarthy then responded to a fan named Thomas who suggested Till had won every aspect of the bout including striking, grappling, and octagon control, telling him that if, and only if, the striking and grappling were even, which ‘Big John’ thinks they were not in this instance, is octagon control even taken into consideration:

“Thomas, I’m sure I would like you too, but just because the UFC puts something on its broadcast doesn’t mean it is scored like that. So you know, striking & or grappling will be the sole determinant of who wins a round unless they are exactly equal, then u bring in aggression. If that is equal then the last element the judge will use is cage or Octagon Control. Oh and so you know, I’m pretty sure about this because I wrote it.”

Till ultimately won the battle of significant strikes by a small margin in a tentative fight, and he also scored the fight’s only knockdown in addition to controlling the octagon, three factors that would suggest he won rather handily.

But McCarthy suggested that the person quantifying the significant strikes was simply a ‘TV guy’ who didn’t necessarily take into account that all strikes were the same, raising another reason why it was questionable Till had won:

“So tell me who is the person pushing the button on what they believe to be a significant strike? It’s just a TV guy. 2nd all punches, kicks, knees etc are not the same. This is where people start to get confused when assessing who is winning a fight.”

Do you agree with ‘Big John’s’ harsh assessment of how the controversial UFC Liverpool main event was scored?

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‘Big John’ Reveals What Old UFC Had That New Version Lacks

‘Big John’ has a big reason why the old UFC did better than the new one:

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In the almost two years that Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG) has owned the UFC, there have been mixed reactions whether or not their more Hollywood-focused plans are the best course of action for the MMA pioneer.

Indeed, pay-per-view sales have largely struggled during Endeavor’s tenure, and while that could simply be a byproduct of Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey largely being inactive, it could also serve as a cloudy forecast on the new owners’ ability to promote the stars they have – which is the exact business they are in.

With ratings sagging but a lucrative new streaming deal with sports giant ESPN in place, it seems the UFC is at a fork in the road where it currently stands. On one hand, demand for live airings of their FOX shows continues to decline with record lows being hit, but the signing of the deal shows there is still – at least supposedly – big demand for the UFC product.

We’ll see what happens during a telling next year for Endeavor, but no matter what transpires the comparisons between this era of the UFC and the one it took over for will always be there.

A prominent figure from a nostalgic UFC era gone by recently revealed a main difference, as longtime MMA referee ‘Big John’ McCarthy told Joe Rogan on the JRE MMA Show (via Bloody Elbow) that while UFC President Dana White was no doubt a driving force, the biggest thing Endeavor lacks is the drive of former owner Lorenzo Fertitta:

“The greatest thing that the UFC had was Lorenzo Fertitta,” McCarthy said. “I’m just being honest. Dana White was fantastic for the UFC as far as his work effort and the amount of work he put into it and non-stop just going after deals, trying to make things happen.”

Indeed the UFC has been lacking Fertitta’s perhaps underrated expertise in the MMA game, a sort of intangible air of maneuvering that Endeavor has clearly lacked since buying the UFC from Fertitta and his brother Frank for a then-record-setting $4.2 billion in July 2016.

McCarthy has since left refereeing to give commentary during UFC competitor Bellator’s live events. While he’s obviously on the other side in a sense, McCarthy acknowledged that a certain strategy that many have cited the past few years is indeed hurting them, and that’s their insistence on running so many events:

“(Having too many events) is part of the problem,” McCarthy said. “For a while there, they were almost competing against themselves with pay-per-views. You had two pay-per-views in a month, and you went and said ‘I’ll buy that one, I’m not gonna buy that one.’

“You can’t be in business against yourself.”

Perhaps a good point from ‘Big John,’ but the latter one was a more obvious one to point out as opposed to his view that Fertitta was the best thing the old UFC had going for them.

What is your view on the subject? Is the UFC’s lacking a presence like Fertitta truly causing the promotion’s sagging ratings, or is it a lack of true top-level stars Fertitta enjoyed during his last two years running the world MMA leader?

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Big John McCarthy Reacts To Controversial UFC Atlantic City Stoppage

This weekend’s (Sat., April 21, 2018) UFC Fight Night 128 from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, saw a controversial stoppage unfold when bantamweight Ricky Simon came back from an early round beating against Merab Dvalishvili. In the fight’s third round, Simon snatched a mounted guillotine choke on a tired Dvalishvili, and the dangerous […]

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This weekend’s (Sat., April 21, 2018) UFC Fight Night 128 from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, saw a controversial stoppage unfold when bantamweight Ricky Simon came back from an early round beating against Merab Dvalishvili.

In the fight’s third round, Simon snatched a mounted guillotine choke on a tired Dvalishvili, and the dangerous submission was tight.

Watch the brutal choke right here, which went down to the final seconds of the fight:

At first, it appeared Dvalishvili would survive to the bell and, after out-striking Simon by a wide margin in the opening rounds, most likely win on the judges’ scorecards. Dvalishvili didn’t tap despite being in serious danger, and the fight seemingly came to a close.

However, a cageside discussion amongst officials declared that the fight would be called a TKO victory for Simon after Dvalishvili was deemed to be unconscious at the end of the third round. The video showed that Dvalishvili was indeed in big trouble and exhausted towards the end of the three-round fight, and a heated argument about whether or not it was the correct call predictably erupted online. According to many of the prominent MMA referees questioned, it seems the consensus is that referee Liam Kerrigan and the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board made the right call last weekend.

The biggest name in refereeing for the sport – legendary UFC referee and current Bellator commentator “Big” John McCarthy – discussed the strange scenario with fans on Twitter last night, saying that the right outcome was made, but the wrong result was recording with a TKO:

McCarthy even responded to Ariel Helwani’s clarification of the situation, forcefully declaring it should have been a technical submission result:

“Big” John also cleared up any doubt in his mind that Dvalishvili was out, detailing the exact moment when he went out not once but twice in the fight:

Earlier in the night, McCarthy had a somewhat angry, somewhat humorous response to a fan who asked him if being saved by the bell was a real thing in MMA as it was in boxing:

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John McCarthy Admits Difficulty in Not Cursing on Bellator Broadcasts

“Big” John McCarthy has a bit of a potty mouth that he’s been trying to contain for Bellator broadcasts. McCarthy has made a seemingly smooth transition from mixed martial arts referee to color commentator. Once Jimmy Smith left Bella…

“Big” John McCarthy has a bit of a potty mouth that he’s been trying to contain for Bellator broadcasts. McCarthy has made a seemingly smooth transition from mixed martial arts referee to color commentator. Once Jimmy Smith left Bellator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), many wondered who would take his place. McCarthy ended up […]

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