“Big” John McCarthy is once again changing lanes in the combat sports world.
Two weeks ago, McCarthy announced he was returning to his original role in MMA: refereeing. McCarthy had been working Bellator and later PFL broadcasts, while also podcasting, since leaving MMA officiating in 2018. Nearly seven years later, things have come full circle for McCarthy, who will return to refereeing fights.
McCarthy said he missed officiating and admitted that was always something he longed for while working in media.
“I hear everyone say, ‘Oh, it’s about money,’ and I’m like, ‘Money? That’s hysterical.’ I’m going back to what’s not money, but it’s what I love doing,” McCarthy told MMA Junkie Radio. “I sit here and analyze and try to make people understand what other guys are doing and why it’s all good. But I left – I never retired. I’m leaving to take another job, and that was because my neck was screwed up. My neck was really bad and I couldn’t lift my arm. I had three operations on my neck to try to get it right. I looked at it and said, you know, I can’t do this the right way, and if I can’t do it the right way, there’s no point in doing it.
“At that time, Bellator, with Scott Coker, came in and made me a great offer to keep me relevant and be able to stay with the sport I love, so I took that. But I never said I was retired (from refereeing). That’s the best part. I did it on purpose. I always knew I would eventually try to go back if I was physically capable of doing it, and now I’m physically capable of doing it. It’s a matter of I love active refereeing, I love the judging, and everything officiating.”
McCarthy already refereed an event, Reality Fighting, earlier this month in Connecticut and already had his services requested to referee a BKFC event in California. For McCarthy, it was like riding a bike.
“Just going back to do that one show, it was like I never left,” McCarthy said. “Nothing was difficult. I wasn’t nervous and I thought I might because it’s been a while. But everything worked well. I want to have fun in life and I don’t have that much longer left, so why not do it while I can? If there comes that point where I’m not able to do it, or I’m not doing it to take the level I set for myself and other people should set for me, then I’ll walk away from it.”
Now back to refereeing, this means McCarthy’s role in the PFL broadcasts along with his podcast with former Bellator fighter Josh Thomson, “Weighing-In,” has come to an end.
“There are things that have to change,” McCarthy said. “First off, I stepped away from the podcast that I was doing with Josh Thomson, which I love doing. … I had to step away because I can’t do that and do the officiating correctly because you have to talk about people, and now I’m in that position. I’m not here to talk about fighters or fights or tell someone what I think they should do.”
