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[Cat--Smasher]

Big John McCarthy critical of stand ups by other UFC refs

Big John McCarthy critical of stand ups by other UFC refs - Bloody Elbow

McCarthy was on the MMA Hour on Monday and made free with the criticism (transcribed by MMA Fighting):

"I will [only] stand a fight up when it's close to an even position," McCarthy said. "If you're in guard, or even half guard, and the action has stalled to the point, and I give you warnings [that] I need you to get busy and nothing really changes, you've shown me that you can't do anything, I'm going to stop you. I'm going to restart you. But if you get to dominant positions, be it side control, mount, back, the only way in the world that I would ever stand somebody up out of that, and I've done it once -- I tell this story, it's Jeremy Horn -- is if you go and clamp down and you're the one stalling the fight because you're not doing anything.

"You'll get fighters that'll sit there and they'll want you to stand them up, and you go, ‘There's no way in the world I'm standing you up.' Don't look to me to get you out of your problem. Get yourself out.

"If we start to take people out of those positions that are dominant, then we start to become unfair to the fight," McCarthy finished. "We give an advantage to one fighter over the other, and that's not our responsibility. That's not our job. We're doing something that's completely opposite of what we should be doing.

"You've got to have some compassion about how hard it is to do some of the things these [fighters] are trying to do, and doing it against a guy who knows what you're trying to do," McCarthy explained. "When you get guys in these mad scrambles and they'll finally end up in a position on the ground, and you'll see a referee come in and five second later [say], ‘Come one. Work.' It's like, ‘Jesus Christ, don't you think they just did? Wouldn't you be trying to get your heart rate back and breathe a little bit?' You've got to be reasonable when you're looking at things. Sometimes that's what separates the referees that fighters want to have doing their fights compared to others, because they understand the complexities of what's going on."

[IrishX(aka bornbear)]

You wonder if they pulled some stupid casual fan who boos the moment the fight goes to the ground out of the audience and stuck 'em in at ref sometimes...

[hass]

Big John, Good Point(s).

[lwbrewer]

you would think by the time a ref is offered a job at the UFC level they would have a understanding of the fight game. Or is the choices for ref's that bad. Same applies for judges to

[Kimbo> Rampage]

Get rid of Herb Dean and Mazzagatti... I dont care if they do a good job in some fights, Mazzagatti has had more than his share of blunders, and Dean cheats fighters out a chance to fight back or recover...

[Cat--Smasher]

'Big' John McCarthy says issues with NSAC boss Keith Kizer have kept him from referee duties in Las Vegas - MMAmania.com

"Keith got mad at me when I left and I did an interview and I said, basically, at the time, I thought he was putting some people in positions to judge fights that didn't understand actually what the fighters were doing, and that's wrong. I said that and I stood by it. He got mad, and from that he has never licensed me again. And that's okay. That's his choice. I'm not going sit there and cry about it and worry about it. I work where people want me to work, I work all over the world. And if I don't work in Nevada, then that is their choice and that's okay, they have that ability. But, I have nothing to do with it. I have people that say, ‘Well, he hasn't even applied.' Well, I went, I put in the application and received a letter back from them that says they have a full complement of referees and that my application will stay on file. That has been three years."

[GL Jeff]

I think stand-ups are needed to punish fighters who want to blanket another fighter for 3-5 rounds. Full guard is easy to judge,not doing anything to improve position or finish the fight,give a warning,20 seconds later stand them up. I do agree,the more dominate positions shouldnt be stood up,but fighters are usually working harder at that point so its not a stalling situation.

I would like to see Dan be remove from his job,and more new blood enter the scene. I've found the younger new ref's are doing a great job,minus Kim.

[Flynnja]

Fernando Yamasaki is the absolute worst for this I ever seen. Thank god he didn't end up refing Fitch vs Silva

[Qball1974]

Originally Posted by lwbrewer

you would think by the time a ref is offered a job at the UFC level they would have a understanding of the fight game. Or is the choices for ref's that bad. Same applies for judges to

You would think.