‘Big’ John McCarthy reveals truth about UFC referee pay
Bad mixed martial arts (MMA) refereeing is back in the spotlight once again after a bad call from Dan Miragliotta may have cost Renato Moicano his main event fight at last weekend’s UFC Halloween show.
Moicano was using his superior grappling skills to dominate Tom Nolan on the ground, taking Nolan’s back in the second round to lock in a body triangle. Things were looking good for “Money,” and then Miragliotta inexplicably stood the fight back up, costing Moicano the dominant position. Nolan then hit him with a big knee moments later, and would go on to win the fight via TKO in the third round.
Pioneering MMA referee “Big” John McCarthy went on the Ariel Helwani show to explain why Miragliotta was wrong to stand the fight up. And while he didn’t defend his fellow referee’s poor decision, he did suggest referees were underpaid and overworked, sharing just how much refs make to call UFC events.
“I can’t tell you exactly, but Dan probably made $1600 for that fight,” McCarthy said. “I’ll give you the truth, on every fight I ever did in the UFC, the most I ever made was $2000. That was the last show I ever did in New York in 2017. That was two championship fights, I did Rose [Namajunas] vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk, then I did Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre. I got $2,000 for that entire night.”
“So everyone sits there and says all refs care about is money? No.”
That may only further inflame those who believe UFC referees are in on some shady side business now that sports betting has completely consumed the sport. McCarthy refused to give that suggestion any credit, but did say all the accusations wear referees down.
“I’m not here to say anything about who the UFC has sponsoring them now but betting has become a huge part of the sport, and when people do things right, they’re still being maligned and called all sorts of names and everything about how corrupt they are when they didn’t do anything wrong,” McCarthy said. “They did everything right, and they’re being called out, they’re being abused. They have death threats. You can only take so much.”
“They make a little more money now, but that wasn’t one of the numbered shows,” he concluded. “One of the numbered shows, you’re going to make more money. But it absolutely has an effect after a while of ‘This isn’t worth it.'”
You can count on one hand the number of regular UFC referees who still have largely positive reputations. A good ref has to strike the balance of being largely invisible but willing to step in and punish serious fouls when they occur. That’s tricky to achieve, but as we’ve seen over the years, the commission locks like Herb Deans and Dan Miragliottas continue to show up weekend after weekend doing the same questionable s–t.
Maybe better pay would improve the crop of potential referees, but if the commissions refuse to use anyone but their locked in crew, how will things ever improve?