MMA legend and Bellator commentator “Big John” McCarthy, who was integral in the early development of the sport of mixed martial arts, isn’t buying Dana White’s claim that the sport’s great all end up in the UFC. McCarthy pointed out the evidence to the contrary on the Weighing In podcast.
“You don’t have to do your champions, just certain fighters that I think you could put a team of five fights together with guys that are somewhere in your top 15. You could put together some really interesting fights, and you have the right to each promotion [saying], ‘Hey, we like this matchup, what do you think?’ And if you agree with it, then do it.
Big John Counters Claim That The Best Fighters End Up in UFC
It is not going to take away anything from the UFC. I think if he believes he has the best fighters, then eventually he would go out and try and show some dominance.
I think doing it now for him wouldn’t make any sense. But if Rizin and Bellator and PFL and ONE all decided to join in and it starts to work for them, and they do one of these shows a year and build their fighters again, who knows?” The comments came hot on the heels of the Rizin vs Bellator event that took place in Japan on New Year’s Eve.
“Sorry, it’s already been proven that that’s just not true, and there’s a lot of guys out there that …look, this guy’s good, he deserved to be fighting against guys in the UFC.
But he decided, I don’t want to put up with some of the things that are there, and decided, ‘I’m not going there. I’ll continue to fight, and I’ll continue to fight where I want to fight and I’ll make my money this way,’ and they have.
I’m not saying [White is] wrong. But to say that all the good ones are going to end up here anyways, that’s not true. He’s not lying, but he’s not looking back and saying that one, this one [didn’t go to the UFC].”
McCarthy continued, citing one incident in which White and the UFC worked with the now-defunct PRIDE promotion in Japan, that did not go well for the American promotion. Dana White lent out Chuck Liddell and Ricco Rodriguez, and failed to receive any reciprocation from his Japanese counterpart.
“They said, ‘Oh, we’re going to send over [Kazushi] Sakuraba’ – they never did, so he was like, ‘I got burned. I’m not going to allow someone to burn me again.’
And so he looks at it now like, we are the biggest organization. He is absolutely right, and what’s it do for my organization? What does it do for me as the promoter, and he’s saying that, no, it’s only a benefit for the other promotions, and I’m not here to benefit them. So his choice is to say, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ I wish he would.”
