Well, it appears as if a couple drunk guys picked a fight with the wrong UFC referee. John McCarthy was involved in a physical altercation back in 2014. However, the veteran referee did have a response for his assailants when he was assaulted.
Empire Sports reported the 2014 altercation:
Big John McCarthy of UFC ref fame was attacked and knocked unconscious early afternoon on Wednsesday at a Los Angeles Costco. Unfortunately there was no one to step in and stop the fight once he was clearly knocked out.
The assailants were, according to witnesses, two MMA fanatics who recognized Big John and started hassling the well known referee. They particularly had some issues with a couple of fights that they felt were stopped prematurely by McCarthy, according to eye witnesses.
“They were shouting something about an old Tito Ortiz fight back in the day,” said Joseph Goldsmith who saw the fight after buying his 300 pound bag of Cheetos at the Costco.
Big John is no pushover, as he is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt, but these two attackers had the element of surprise, as no one would imagine being attacked in a Costco parking lot over controversial fight stoppages. Big John apparently was facing one of the attackers, when he was hit in the back of the head with a large bag of staples purchased at the big box store. It is hard to recover from that, but Big John did manage to get in his licks. The two low lifes were pretty scuffed up in their mug shots. But there were two of them and only one of Big John. The move that finished McCarthy off was when he was clobbered by a 16 pound jar of peanut butter….crunchy. They caught him right on the temple and as UFC fans know, it was lights out
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There were some witnesses who tried to help the UFC ref but the two thugs were hardcore. Even after McCarthy was unconscious they added some kicks to the ribs for good measure. One witness actually jumped in and tried to wave the two attackers off, saying, “it’s all over, he’s out.” The guy just got caught up in the moment and is an aspiring MMA ref, he was not trying to save Big John evidently. Police finally arrived to break up the beating. One witness, Jerry Gallo, told us, “I am glad those thugs are off the streets, but I feel like the police stopped the fight a bit too soon. Big John may have been out cold but I feel like he could have rebounded at any time.”
UFC fans can rest assured that McCarthy will be back on his feet in a few days. He is recovering nicely and will be back at his training facility very soon. He will be appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast next Tuesday to discuss the upward trend of violence at wholesale store parking lots.
