Big John McCarthy unhappy with Max Holloway's controversial decision loss at UFC 251
Many fighters, fans, and Dana White himself seemed unhappy by Max Holloway's controversial decision loss at UFC 251. Dana White has been left so upset with the situation that there are reports he may even end up firing referees and judges of UFC 251.
Retired MMA referee, Big John McCarthy, found himself in the same boat as the majority of the MMA community and was left incensed by the judges' scorecard.
Big John McCarthy left fuming at Max Holloway's loss at UFC 251
On his podcast alongside Josh Thompson, Weighing In, McCarthy fumed at Max Holloway's loss and said the judges did not follow the rules while coming up with a scorecard. Big John also said the UFC should have done a better job of bringing in a higher standard of officiating members.
"This is where I have a problem. The UFC, they are responsible for the people that are officials there. This isn't the British Mixed Martial Arts Council that is doing the inspector job. It is the UFC. You picked some really bad people to be your judges cause they do not have the level that it takes to be in the position they are and judge some of those fights." (h/t: BJPenn.com)
John McCarthy has been one of the pioneers of MMA and has been involved in the sport since it's inception back in 1993 with the UFC. He would also be central in MMA becoming an organized sport as he worked along with Nevada state commission in hammering out the rules that every promotion including the UFC follows today.
"Because the Volkanovki fight was not that hard of a fight to judge, Max was tooling him at the beginning of that fight. I will give Volkanovski coming on in the end but there's no way he won three rounds of that fight. Did not happen, impossible. Sorry, I don't know what the hell you are looking at, I wrote the rules that you go by your criteria and you are not freaking following it."
Max Holloway has been a class act even in an unwarranted loss and reached out to his fans on Twitter after the rematch. It remains uncertain what UFC envisages for Max Holloway's future at featherweight as he will likely be overqualified and underpaid as a gatekeeper in the division.
This loss could see Max Holloway move up to lightweight as well. However, that remains a thing of future for now.