John McCarthy says the reason he hasn’t worked a UFC event since 2017 is Dana White. More specifically, he says it’s a grudge.
The claim surfaced Wednesday, Nov. 4, when Bloody Elbow posted it on X: “Legendary ref John McCarthy claims Dana White grudge has kept him away from the UFC since 2017.” The post linked to the outlet’s full write-up, in which McCarthy discussed the political rift that he says ended his long association with the promotion’s events.
That is McCarthy’s version, and it’s an unproven one. Nothing in the reporting available to us includes a response from White or from the UFC. There’s also nothing that independently documents the falling out McCarthy describes. What exists right now is one side of a feud, told by the guy who says he got frozen out.
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Still, it matters because of who’s saying it. Bloody Elbow didn’t call him legendary by accident. McCarthy is the referee whose name a lot of longtime fans know before they know half the roster. When a figure that closely tied to the promotion’s events says a personal beef with the boss kept him away for the better part of a decade, people are going to listen, whether or not the claim holds up.
It’s also the rare case of somebody answering the question straight. Fight people usually go vague when the subject is White, and you get soft talk about creative differences or bad timing. McCarthy apparently chose to put a name on it, and that’s more than most will do on the record.
The obvious next beat is White. He’s never been shy with a microphone, and a claim this direct from someone this well known tends to get a response, usually at a post-fight press conference and usually with a few words the network has to bleep. If he answers, we’ll have the second side. If he doesn’t, McCarthy’s account is the only one out there.
Until then, the record shows exactly one thing: McCarthy’s last stretch around UFC events ended in 2017, and he has offered his own explanation for why it never resumed.
