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Big John McCarthy is one of MMA's most loved referees and iconic within the sport itself. An all around good dude he travels around the country speaking at schools about anti-bullying campaigns and encourages kids to find positive outlets in life like sports or hobbies. A BJJ blackbelt himself, the guy knows everything about combat sports and has a good sense of direction in life.
Big John has been calling out how the industry treats fighters for some time now and especially critical of Dana White as recently stating on the Weighing In podcast - "Dana needs to bow down to Vince because he stole everything from Vince. He stole his persona, he stole exactly how he runs his company, all of that." In the context of Dana saying he couldn't have scripted a better UFC fight than McMahan's WWE for an upcoming bout.
I think this is where all of Johns concern boils down. The treatment of fighters and where Dana stands as the face of the worlds largest MMA promotion. If the UFC fighters were treated better in terms of compensation, insurance, etc. I don't think McCarthy would be as critical as he is of Dana White.
McCarthy Recently retweeted some stats on fighter pay and it's not so good compared to other sports. UFC fighters make about 16% of revenue from their promotion where as MLB Baseball players make 54%, NBA basketball players make 50%, NFL players make 46%, Bellator fighters make 44%. Why does the largest human gladiator proportion of sports promoter, pay their fighters the least % of revenue?
I agree with John McCarthy's criticism on Dana White. Hell, I even agree with Jake Paul on something. Dana White may not own the UFC anymore and have the hand to change the company he founded. If he doesn't do something soon though, I think the rest of the world may soon realize we can stream better fights with company's Like Bellator or Fight.TV!