‘Big’ John McCarthy has shared thoughts on the most controversial moment from UFC Abu Dhabi.
The legendary referee watched from home as Mohammad Yahya was dropped eight times en route to a TKO loss against Steven Nguyen on Saturday night.
Fans called for the in-cage official, Jason Herzog, to be fired for failing to wave off the mismatch.
Ultimately, the UFC doctor intervened after assessing Yahya’s gruesome eye injury at the end of round two.
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UFC Abu Dhabi fight should’ve been stopped sooner
Yahya suffered a record-breaking six knockdowns in one round at UFC Abu Dhabi.
For most, that would’ve been enough to wave off his tough-to-watch fight with Nguyen.
John McCarthy had no problem with the decision to allow the fight to continue into round two.
However, he does believe that Herzog should’ve intervened before the doctor got the chance to.
“Jason was right,” McCarthy said on the ‘WEIGHING IN’ podcast he shared with ex-UFC fighter Josh Thomson.
“He stopped the fight after the second round ended.
“It could’ve been stopped even sooner.
“It probably – I’m being honest – should have.
“Based on, ‘Why am I going to allow this kid to get more damage when he’s not going to win this fight?’”
John McCarthy rages at UFC Abu Dhabi judges
McCarthy’s main issue with Nguyen vs. Yahya had nothing to do with how it was refereed.
The 62-year-old was furious about how the first round of their fight was scored by the judges.
All three of them gave it 10-8 to Nguyen, opting against rewarding his efforts with a rare 10-7 round.
“I’m like, that’s because they’re afraid to. They’re afraid now to freaking do their job,” McCarthy said.
“You look at, when you’re that guy on the outside [and] you’re not in the [United] States, and if you take a look at the people that were judging that, a lot of them are in Europe and they want to work.
“So they’re looking and they’re taking the safe route of saying, ‘You know what, this is a 10-8’, when they’re not giving the fighter, Steven Nguyen, what he deserves for what he did in that round.”
“If you wanna know what a 10-7 round is, watch the first round of that fight.”