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Last week, the Nevada athletic commission named "Big" John McCarthy as the referee for the main event of UFC 200, the anticipated rematch between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones. This assignment was given despite protests from Jones's camp. Jones then doubled down on his objections yesterday afternoon saying , "I would prefer any other referee but him."
Recently, on the UFC Unfiltered podcast with Matt Serra and Jim Norton, Cormier also spoke about Jones's protests of McCarthy and his opinion on the third man in the cage for their fight.
"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."
McCarthy is the longest tenured referee in MMA, having started working for the UFC at UFC 2, and has refereed three of Jones's bouts: against Alexander Gustafsson, Vitor Belfort, and Lyoto Machida. Jones has refused to elucidate what his exact issue with McCarthy is only saying that the "energy" between them is off and hoping McCarthy will choose to step down as the referee for the bout.
Cormier is not without his own referee issues. In the lead up to their intended fight at UFC 197, Cormier filed an official complaint seeking to have Herb Dean removed as the referee from their bout. Dean refereed their first fight and Cormier was displeased with Dean allowing Jones to spend so much time clinching Cormier against the fence in the 5th round. However, Cormier says he has gotten past that and that Jones will have to as well.
"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 and Jones rematch for the UFC light heavyweight championship in the main event of UFC 200 on July 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Carlos Condit (30-9-0) vs. Demian Maia (23-6-0); UFC 202, August 20.
Neil Magny (18-4-0) vs. Dong Hyun Kim (21-3-1); UFC 202, August 20.
Tony Ferguson (20-3-0) vs. Landon Vannata (8-0-0); UFC Fight Night 91, July 13.
Marvin Vettori (10-2-0) vs. Alberto Uda (9-1-0); UFC 202, August 20.
TODAY IN MMA HISTORY
2001: B.J. Penn put the MMA world on notice by knocking out Din Thomas in the first round at UFC 32. In the main event that evening, Tito Ortiz defended his UFC light heavyweight championship by stopping Elvis Sinosic with punches and elbows in the first round.
2002: In his first bout after winning the Shooto welterweight championship, Takanori Gomi defeated Leonardo Santos via majority decision in a non-title bout at Shooto: Treasure Hunt 7.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The welterweight champion is back! Carlos Condit is set to face Demian Maia in what sure as hell ought to be a number 1 contenders match (Wonderboy gets next then the winner of this one - T-Woodley is really ruining this all). Which brings me to something I feel very strongly about: grown ass men and women should be fighting five five-minute rounds.
Over 5 rounds, I would feel real confident Condit takes this fight because over 5 rounds there isn't a man 170 pounds and below who is gonna beat him. But since this is three rounds, Maia has a great chance at squeaking by him. This is ostensibly for a title shot which means two takedowns and survival mode is enough to win Maia a shot at the belt but in the title fight two takedowns and survival mode will get him a beating and a loss. Think about it. The idea that anyone should get a title shot off of fighting 60 percent as long as that title shot will be is ridiculous.
Remember when women's MMA was only three minute rounds and everybody thought that was completely absurd? Same concept here, only without the misogynistic underpinnings. Any fight between two ranked fighters in the UFC should be a five-round fight and there aren't good arguments against it. "Oh but then the cards will go on too long!" Have you watched a full UFC lately? These things routinely last 6+ hours. There was only ever one good argument against this and it was the prospect of watching Jared Rosholt for 25 minutes, which is admittedly a horrifying thought but still totally worth it if in exchange we got Condit-Maia for 25 minutes. Or Holloway vs. Lamas for 25. Or any other dope fight that we only got three rounds of instead of our deserved five.
Fights between ranked guys are all essentially Fight Night main event-able and when you get to the top of the division and the stakes are real, fighters should have the best opportunity to prove their mettle. I think the UFC rankings are mostly completely nonsensical,but in this one area they could actually have a point.
Let me know what you think M.Rmy. Until tomorrow.
If you find something you'd like to see in the Morning Report, just hit me up on Twitter @JedKMeshew and let me know about it.
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