**Big John McCarthy talks Fedor-Silvia, Tito, Dana and more**

Keelar Squeed · 07-29-2008, 06:31 PM

Good stuff!

Big John McCarthy Fires Back at Kizer and Ratnor
Written by Administrator
Tuesday, 29 July 2008 17:30

I spoke to Big John McCarthy today to discuss the Affliction show and to follow up on some comments that Keith Kizer of the CASC and Marc Ratnor of the UFC made about him based on comments he had made in a previous interview with me. In that interview, which was picked up by Yahoo Sports, BJM said that he stopped refereeing because he was unhappy with the judging of the fights. When contacted by Yahoo Sports, Kizer and Ratnor said that Big John never indicated his displeasure to them and that his reasons for leaving were strictly monetary. In this inteview Big John gives his reaction to those comments and to Dana White's "enemy" remark.

Garv: Hey, Big John. Affliction last week. Wow! Were you shocked and amazed like everyone else?

No (laughs). I thought Fedor could win in the first round. I didn't think he would win in 36 seconds. But Fedor, he's a unique individual, a unique fighter. His ability to actually dominate guys in their game...he's done it before, he dominated Mirko Crocop in the standup. He did well standing up with Mark Hunt. Tim is very good at the stand up but he's no better than some of the other guys Fedor's fought before. Semmy Schilt is someone who is very comparable to Tim. He's got very good stand up and he's a big tall guy and I watched Fedor walk through him. So I really thought Fedor would win the fight. I thought he would get Tim down and submit him. He did submit him but it was really due to the punch. But I didn't see it 36 seconds, no.

Me neither. Tim said he was looking forward to fighting in the ring because he could cut off the corners, but he didn't get a chance to use it.

Nah, Tim went out there, he threw one left hand and then when Fedor opened up, he was all over Tim. The first couple of punches, he threw the left hook and Tim blocked it pretty well. He came with the uppercut and it was the left hand after the uppercut, it hit Tim and you could see it absolutely froze him. Tim went down and it was just him trying to survive what was happening. Fedor was all over him and he did exactly what he's supposed to do. And that's one of the things that makes Fedor who he is. When he hurts people, he goes after them. He doesn't let them off. And he didn't let Tim off and he finished the fight. That's why he's the best heavyweight in the world.

He definitely made a statement to the people who dropped him down on their top ten lists.

Yeah, people can say whatever they want to say and everyone's got an agenda in why they're something when it comes to Fedor. But you cannot take away anything the man has done when he steps into the ring. He's taken on everyone they put in front of him and he's walked through just about everybody. I heard a lot of people say that he hasn't fought much of a competition in the last couple years and they're right to a point. But that's not Fedor's fault. That guy will fight anyone. His management team is the one trying to set him up with a certain pay structure for him to fight and they're looking at it as they're doing the best for him. Other people are looking at it, well he's not fighting top fighters because of it. Everyone has their interests in what they're trying to find out. But now with what's happening with Fedor and who he's fighting, I don't anyone can question how good he is.

No. He's the number one heavyweight and number one pound for pound in my book. And he fights Arlovski next.

That's a hell of a fight, especially with the way [Arlovski] fought Ben Rothwell. Andre looked fantastic. Probably the best fight of the night overall. He proved that he's very explosive as a heavyweight and that's a good fight. I'm not saying that Andre's the favorite, he's not. But there's going to be people saying he doesn't have a chance--he's a very athletic guy, he's gonna move well and he'll be in there for a little while doing a good job with Fedor.

I was glad to see Arlovski fighting aggressively against Rothwell. He looked tentative in his previous fights. But he went after Rothwell with some effective aggression.

I think for awhile Andre's problem was that Andre was fighting not to lose. Whenever you go into a fight you need to be offensive, to create your opportunities. Andre for awhile, I think a lot of it was because of his contract situation with the UFC. He looked at it that if he lost then they're going to try and cut his pay when the contract situation came up. So he was really fighting not to lose instead of going out there and doing what he could do and do it at his best. And I think he's in a comfortable position now where he's at. With the Affliction promotion he understands what he's going to make, he's not in a contract situation. And he knows that you know what: I just need to go out and do what I do...and that's go after people and put them away. That's what he did with Ben Rothwell.

The rest of the article is here:

Big John McCarthy Fires Back at Kizer and Ratnor

jarwillie · 07-29-2008, 06:45 PM

That was an excellent read, thanks Keeler.

When big John talks, I always have to listen or read what he says. The guy is intelligent and I hope he stick with MMA until his brain doesn't allow it anymore.