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Unpopular opinion: John McCarthy is overrated

Actually a very popular opinion. Dude sounds like an egomaniac often.
 
elvis 78 said:
I don’t like how he’s constantly yelling “ come on let’s work “ at the professional fighters
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I would find it funnier if he actually started booing while poking the fighters in the ribs
 
Substance Abuse said:
Yes. 100%.

Quite possibly the worst MMA commentator as well.
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For a long long time as I understand it. The "training" MMA Refs received for the most part came from Big John. At least in the prominent orgs.

So we can give him some respect for that.. Or flip the coin and throw all the poor refs at his feet.
 
i judge refs not on their good calls bad calls, i judge them on me never noticing that they're there and allowing the fight to play out organically. he was a good ref by that standard.
 
Taric said:
He literally helped create the rules for MMA, and to this day is still instrumental in attempting to improve upon those rules.
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And many things that were avoided. His actions lead me to believe he always wanted to be front and center, pushing his weight around. I think fundamentally refs should not be as involved as much as he was.
 
markys00 said:
And many things that were avoided. His actions lead me to believe he always wanted to be front and center, pushing his weight around. I think fundamentally refs should not be as involved as much as he was.
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The hell? Rorion Gracie asked BJM and Jeff Blatnick to create the rules for his sport so MMA could become regulated by athletic commissions. BJM is the guy that teaches most of these refs how to ref. His school is one of the few that can give out referee licenses that are accepted by all athletic commissions.

BJM is like the Helio Gracie of MMA refereeing
 
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John Mccarthy was one of the OG's who made the sport so I will always respect him. He was one of the best refs for a long time, if he slipped and isn't as good today, then I'm okay with that, you can't expect perfection from refs. Also good fighters will beat their opponents bad ref or not, so to me the ref isn't an important factor on determining winners/losers most times.
 
Big John has appropriate amount of ego.
 
Taric said:
He literally helped create the rules for MMA, and to this day is still instrumental in attempting to improve upon those rules.
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EXACTLY

The man was a major force in helping shape the rules, and also instrumental in getting MMA sanctioned so that it can even be considered a 'sport'.

Not to mention, he's still working with Athletic Commission to train newer refs, and to refine the rules like they recently did to prevent wall-n-stall and lay-n-pray abuse, or to stop guys from gaming the system by redefining what it means to be a downed opponent (a lot of guys put one hand down in the clinch to prevent knees and so on)l



I really don't understand what this TS is suggesting. John McCarthy has been working since UFC 2, and is a real pioneer for MMA.

How do you do all this work over the span of almost 30 years, and be called overrated??
Dude's literally done more for MMA and been around longer than Dana - without the added benefit of billions of dollars. Big John literally did it for love of the sport.
 
he helped write the rules, so probably the most knowledgeable ref, has reffed in like 10 different promotions all over, black belt in BJJ, had an mma school, made up a course to train refs.... is he perfect? No... but he probably is the best.
 
Moral Victory said:
Not wanting to hate on the guy, especially as he's retired, but he's praised by so many, I'm guessing since he's been in the game for so long, but imo that man carries too much ego with him in the cage.

And seeing the old fights before Zuffa, he was kind of bad at refereeing, of course now referees have access to more training, but he has had so many years of experience and didn't show an amount of knowledge that I'd expect from it.

In the end, he was an okay ref.

What do you think?

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Also in this one some people say that he wasn't allowed to stop a fight, but he did stop fights on the same card so I'm not sure about that.
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I thought he was good enough as a ref during tumultuous times. Not the best, but pretty good overall.
 
As a ref he was adequate. As a pundit.......he's fucking trash. The whole current Bellasnore commentating team is the worst it's ever been. Wheelock and Smith were great when it was still BellaBjorn.
 
He’s the GOAT ref. That doesn’t mean he’s,perfect, he certainly has made mistakes. But overall he’s the best ref, and such an important figure in the history of MMA, and in writing the unified rules. Terrible fucking commentator, but not everyone can do everything well, you know?
 
He almost screwed Saku over back in the day and was the first time I experienced Ref Bs. Have no real feelings about it anymore. I'm sure it can be a difficult Job in the moment and not everyone is going to be satisfied with the results. Look at the Keith Peterson and Dom Cruise. Dom won't shut the hell up about it and Keith saved his little ass.
 
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