Stemming from the two biggest fight events last weekend, one MMA judge Doug Crosby has fallen under fire, and former MMA referee John McCarthy weighs in.
Last weekend two of the biggest fight promotions on the planet ran events. Bellator held the Bellator 289 event in the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on Friday and the UFC held the UFC 282 event in Las Vegas on Saturday. Normally there would be no comparison between these two events, except that there was a notably bad scorecard turned in at both events, both by the same man, MMA judge Doug Crosby.
This poor scoring has now blown up into a controversy where people are calling for Crosby to be pulled from his position as judge. Many fighters and MMA media members are in shock at how bad the judging was and now the licensing agency is looking into it. A man who is very familiar with being up close and personal to the biggest fights in the world, former MMA referee John McCarthy weighed in on this story.
John McCarthy thinks MMA judging needs to be changed in light of Doug Crosby’s assignments last weekend
McCarthy spoke about this new story while hosting the Weigh-In Podcast on YouTube. He admitted to openly not likely Crosby and explained how him flying from Connecticut to Las Vegas to judge two fights back to back is not unusual. He also claims that although he thought the judging was bad on both cards, the inconsistencies would not have stood out as much if they were not consecutive.
McCarthy is in agreement with all the fans who believed Crosby’s scores were wrong but ultimately he says it is up to the commission to do something about it. He does however feel that there are some things that can be addressed going forward.
“Let’s take a look at the UFC, the cage, and the way that they situate it because they’re the ones that decide where the judges sit. They have had it for as long as Zuffa has been part of the UFC,” he said. “You have two cage doors on the Octagon, the judges sit in those two spots which means you’re looking through a gate, which has extra poles, and you’re looking through more poles that are up and down because it’s got to have this, the pole to hold the gate. You have sometimes this much padding in front of you that the fight is going past and through. It’s not an easy thing to do. And yes, you’re trying to move your head back and forth. It’s not easy to see things and then you’ve got the referee moving in front of you at times.”
McCarthy thinks the UFC should allow the judges a better view of the fights and that could help with judging inconsistencies.
“That’s on the UFC and, listen the UFC can sit there and complain all they want. You give one judge a good seat. One. That’s where you see the ring card girl sitting. There’s one judge sitting there that judge has a good clear view,” he said. “Other than that, the other two judges get sh-t seats. Change it, you want better scores? Change it.”
McCarthy’s son was one of the judges during the UFC 282 co-main event in which Crosby’s scorecard was called into question. He also said he told his son he got the scores wrong as well on a previous episode of the podcast.
