Big John McCarthy says the reason he hasn’t refereed a UFC event since 2017 is simple. He went to work for Bellator, and Dana White didn’t forgive it.
McCarthy laid it out in clips Ariel Helwani posted to X on Monday, and he didn’t bother dressing it up. “I went and worked for Bellator, and Dana White was absolutely pissed about that and said, ‘I don’t want him.’ And he doesn’t need me. That’s fine,” McCarthy said.
He was also pushing back on what White has said about how officials get picked for UFC cards. McCarthy’s version came with a shrug more than a grievance. “They put in names for people they feel comfortable with, which they should be able to do,” he said. So the man who refereed more Octagon fights than anyone alive is out, and he’s fine with the system that put him there. Honest guy. Rare trait in this business.
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The $2,000 ceiling
The part of the interview that should bother people more was the money. McCarthy said his best payday for a UFC event came at his last show in New York in 2017. “I got $2,000 for that entire night,” he said, adding that the $2,000 figure was the most he ever made for any UFC fight he worked.
Asked about current pay, he estimated a referee he called Dan probably made around $1,600 for the fight being discussed, while admitting he couldn’t say exactly.
He tied the low pay to the abuse officials now take, and he pointed at gambling. “Betting has become a huge part of the sport, and when people do things right, they’re still being called corrupt when they didn’t do anything wrong,” McCarthy said. “They’re being abused. They have death threats. You can only take so much.” Eventually, he said, referees start thinking, “This isn’t worth it.”
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Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting summed up the whole thing in one line on X: “We should probably pay refs more and we might get better refs.”
The Moicano standup
McCarthy also took a shot at the officiating itself. He tore into the defense of the standup in Moicano vs. Nolan, which some people had called justified, and he wasn’t having it.
“We talk about standing fights up when they’re in neutral positions. That is not a neutral position. That’s the greatest position that Moicano could be in,” he said. “In the thirty-some years that I’ve refereed, I’ve never stood someone up from that position.”
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Another legend has been side-eyeing White’s way of doing business this week, too. MMA Fighting ran a piece Sunday noting that Fedor Emelianenko has never been impressed with White’s business tactics.
My take: a promoter not wanting a guy who took a paycheck from the competition is petty, sure, but it’s also the most predictable thing in combat sports. The scandal is the number. The UFC is a betting company’s dream partner now, refs are getting death threats over a standup call, and the best one ever topped out at $2,000 a night. Fix that before you fix anything else.
