By now, most fans are aware of the fact that Jon Jones has been protesting the selection of “Big” John McCarthy as the referee for his rematch against UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier in the main event of next month’s UFC 200 event. We’ve heard Jones’ take, now it’s time to see how D.C. feels.
Cormier spoke about Jones protesting the choice of referee for their rematch while appearing on the new UFC Unfiltered podcast.
“I think John McCarthy is a guy that is a great referee. He’s a guy that he’s kind of in the fight. You feel like there’s a third guy. Herb will get out of the way. In some instances you need a ref that will just stay out of the way, he’s just there to protect you. But John does interject himself into the fight some with the open hands and certain things that Jones kind of does consistently. So I guess that may be where his complaints come from but I’m not exactly sure.”
As D.C. continued, he expained that any fighter could have an issue with a particular referee, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to deal with it.
“I’m fine with John McCarthy. I would have been fine with Herb Dean again because as a man when I said that about Herb Dean on a conference call, I will tell you I didn’t know that was going out audio to everybody. I thought it was just me talking to the commission. But afterwards…I felt the need to reach out and say, ‘If I have a gripe I should be able to tell it to you.’ So I ended up talking to Herb Dean and he was gonna get one of the commissioners on the phone so that we could discuss everything, so that he could hear my complaint.
“Every referee has something that they do that someone will not agree with…Look April 23rd, if Herb Dean would have been the official I would’ve had to just nut up and deal with it. And that is exactly what Jones is gonna have to do on July 9.”
Cormier-Jones 2 is scheduled to take place at the landmark UFC 200 event on Saturday, July 9, 2016 from the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Daniel Cormier quotes.
