Big John McCarthy Interview

“Big” John McCarthy is one of the most familiar faces in MMA. But, he’s not a fighter – he’s a referee and if it’s a big fight, odds are McCarthy is the man officiating the action. Irish Whip Fighting caught up with Big John not to long ago to talk about PRIDE Fighters, Fedor, and much more.

Irish Whip Fighting: You probably have the coolest job in the world. How did you get involved with refereeing for MMA events?

"Big" John McCarthy: [Laughs] I started because I worked out with Rorian and Royce Gracie before the UFC was ever started. When they did the first one, there were some things that happened that Rorian wasn't happy with, and he asked me to do it.

IWF: Is it true that you were involved in fighting but decided not to pursue that career because you didn't want to fight your friend, Royce Gracie?

BJM: Well, they didn't want to put me in there with him. I never had the chance to, which ended up being a good thing. Things worked out better for me the way they went.

IWF: How did you come up with your trademarked phrase, "Let's Get It On!"?

BJM: Art Davie was one of the owners of the UFC. Art was talking to me and said he wanted the fights started in a martial arts way. I said, ‘Well what you want?’ and he said, ‘I don't know -- just say something.’ I said, ‘Well, what do you want me to say?’ and he said, ‘You have to come up with something.’ I figured that with two guys standing on opposite sides of the cage about to beat the hell out of each other, how about ‘Are you ready? Let's get it on!’ Art said that it was perfect, and that's basically how it started.

IWF: In the beginning, UFC had almost no rules. Do you like the old UFC or the new UFC better?

BJM: Oh, there's no comparison, I like the way MMA is today. The athletes are much better; everyone's well-rounded; it's just a much better competition now. I like competition. I'm not into guys with relatively no ability fighting. There's no comparison.

IWF: Where do you see mixed martial arts in 10 years?

BJM: Well, I didn't see it being what it is now. But I think that the way things are going with the UFC getting popular, with other promotions coming up and getting people to understand the sport more, and putting on high quality fights with high quality fighters, I think that it could be as big as the NFL or Major League Baseball. More stars will help as far as getting people into it. There are a lot of incredible fighters out there who aren't with the UFC and once people get to know them they're going to really like them.

IWF: How do you think you would fare as a fighter in the UFC today?

BJM: Today? I'd get my ass whipped. [Laughs] I've been asked that a lot. I'm okay -- I can box and I can wrestle. But I'm 45 years old and I'm smart enough to realize that guys of today are well-rounded and they're very good at what they do. It'd be a miracle for me to come out of the workouts uninjured and able to fight. Either way I wouldn't last. Those days have passed me by and I've realized that. I just enjoy doing what I do.

IWF: Well Randy Couture is 44...

BJM: Randy Couture is a freak. [Laughs] To be at his level at his age…he's an unusual person. His ability to train smart, do things the way he has, and keep himself healthy is amazing. He's an unusual person. You won't see many guys fighting at his age. The older you get you start to tail out, but your mind never changes. I don't know how old you are. Well, how old are you?

IWF: 20.

BJM: 20?! Geez! See? As you get older, 25, 35, or 45, what you do in life affects your body in different ways. What I used to be able to do when I was 35 compared to now 45 is very different. Your ability to recover is different, but your mind never changes. I still believe that I can do the stuff that I could do when I was 25 because my mind tells me that, and everyone thinks like that. But truthfully your timing starts to go away and your reaction time slows. Like when I'm training with guys I'll see punches coming and I'll know when I have to move and everything, but I'll end up getting hit because I just don't react as fast. It happens to a lot of fighters. You watch guys like Ken Shamrock, when he stays on and keeps fighting. It's not so much that he lost it, but his quickness and his reflexes have started to diminish. You get caught with what you didn't get caught with before. That's what happens as you get older.

IWF: What do you think about Fedor Emelianenko? How beneficial do you think it would be to have him in UFC?

BJM: Well, that's two questions. What do I think of Fedor? I think Fedor is a phenomenal fighter. He's extremely well-rounded; he does things really well. He's the best at some things, and what he's not the best at he's good at. He's got very good standup as far as he's willing to throw. He throws a lot of punches from different angles; his wrestling ability is good; his hips are very good; his ability to stay up at times and his hip movement is outstanding; his ground-and-pound is as good as anyone's has ever been; he throws punches from the ground harder because of the way that he turns his hips; and his submission game is good. He's a phenomenal fighter. How would he do in the UFC? I think given time that'd he be as dominant as he was in PRIDE. But I think that if you throw him in against a top guy when he's not used to the cage, the different rules, or the size of the cage, a lot of things would work against him. If he was brought into the UFC I think that he should take some fights to get himself acclimated to it, because there is a difference. I think that'd be a smart thing to do.

IWF: Well, people were talking about throwing him in to an immediate title shot.

BJM: Yeah, if I were Fedor's management I would never do that, because he's coming in at too much of a disadvantage. Not because he's not a great fighter, because he is. And skill-wise he's probably the top guy in the world right now, but he's not used to the things that happen. It's a different atmosphere; it's a different arena. There are things that you can do in that cage that don't work in a ring. Especially against a guy like Randy who uses the cage very well, he's knowledgeable about how it works. Fedor would be putting himself at a disadvantage in his first fight. It would've been a mistake.

IWF: The PRIDE guys really seem to be having a hard time with the UFC guys. Is that due to PRIDE being weaker than people thought, UFC guys being better, or something else entirely?

BJM: I think that it's a lot of what I'm talking about. The ring is different than the cage. First of all the PRIDE ring is smaller. Everyone talks about how big the ring is, but it's only 24 feet. At my gym I have the PRIDE ring and the UFC cage, and there's just a ton of more space in the cage than there is in that ring. When a guy comes over from PRIDE there's going to be a difference no matter what as far as the pace of a fight, the things that will happen, and the use of that cage. When you cut a guy off in a ring, it's different than cutting a guy off in a cage. It's caused Mirko [Cro Cop] a lot of problems, because he's not used to it. He ends up chasing guys at times, or he doesn't cut off the right angle to set himself up because he's just not used to that environment. When Mauricio came in he had problems getting to Forrest when he was trying to cut him off, Forrest was using angles on him where Mauricio couldn't get to him. And that's all part of learning. When you come into the UFC the cage is different -- it's bigger and the pace of the fight is different. No matter what anyone says, it is different. In PRIDE, Japanese fans are different than American fans. They don't push so much for that pace to be at a high level. They're more appeasing of a slow pace as long as they think it's tactical and that the fighters are trying to do something. Whereas in America the fans start to boo, so guys naturally start to press and push the pace. Sometimes that can work against you if you're not used to it.

IWF: Out of all of the fights that you have officiated, what fight stands out in your mind as your favorite?

BJM: It's impossible for me to say. I've done so many fights! [Laughs] But asking what my ultimate favorite fight is could mean what fight recently, or what was the biggest fight as far as coverage and anticipation. But I did the Tyson Griffin-Clay Guida fight in Ireland. I love that fight. I thought it was a phenomenal fight between two great guys. They did everything in that fight that is part of mixed martial arts. I love that fight.

IWF: Do you become friends with a lot of these UFC fighters that you work with?

BJM: Back in the early days we would hang around and work out. But when athletic commissions started getting involved with the sport, things kind of changed. I kinda stay away from the fighters as far as social things. I don't go to any of the after-parties or anything. I take my wife with me everywhere, and she's my friend. [Laughs]

IWF: More and more fighters are getting caught with steroids lately. Why do fighters take them if they know they'll probably get caught?

BJM: Well I think that anytime someone thinks that they can have an advantage and if someone tells them that they have a way around the test then they'll take that chance. Everyone wants that competitive edge, and steroids will give you some of the competitive edge. The advantage of steroids isn't so much in the actual fight as much as the training. You can train longer, train harder, and recover from those longer harder training sessions. To talk about strength and size, that's really not going to be much of an advantage in the fights. The ability to train longer, harder, and recover faster is a huge advantage. Even though they know that they aren't supposed to do it, they'll think that they'll get away with it and that's what happens.

Interview originally conducted for MMAMadness.com