THE biggest name among mixed martial arts referees right now is Big John McCarthy. If you think his more than 20 years’ of being the third man on the cage has made him rich, well, think again.
McCarthy, a former Los Angeles police officer, is doing it for the love of the game and doesn’t mind not getting the well-deserved moolah out of it.
“We don’t do this because we become rich off of it,” said McCarthy recently on his new weekly podcast ‘Let’s get it on.’”
“And everyone thinks we get rich off of it. We don’t get rich off of it. It is the ability to have that opportunity and honor to be able to step into that cage and that ring with high-profile championship fighters that bust their ass to get to that point and you’re busting your ass to get to that point, too. And when you make it, it’s an opportunity, you know? That’s the kind of thing that you sit there and later on in life you go, I was able to get to that.”
McCarthy made the remarks after reports came out that the Nevada Athletic Commission is paying him a paltry sum of $1,900 to officiate the main event of the UFC 194 this weekend between Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo in Las Vegas.
It may sound crazy, but it’s actually the highest pay, at least on record, of an MMA referee in the U.S.
A Filipino international referee I know was paid no lower than US$1,000 when he officiated an international WBC title fight in China. International title is considered just a regional championship for the WBC.
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As far as I know, no MMA fighter has been paid more than the seven-figure mark. Former MMA champions have complained about how they deserve to get more.
That’s what makes boxing still the more lucrative sport in terms of payouts for fighters and officials.
The purse in the Fight of the Century between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather reached beyond the $100-million mark.
Veteran boxing referee Kenny Bayless was paid $25,000 for officiating that fight.
It just shows that MMA has a long way to go in making itself a really profitable fight sport industry. The finest combat athletes will still be lured to the more lucrative pay boxing has to offer.
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I have never been a big tennis fan. But given the opportunity to see up close some of the top tennis players in the world, I won’t mind getting my eyes and mind off the MMA cage or the boxing ring, at least for the next three days.
Tennis gods and goddesses yesterday descended upon the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City to display their wares in the Manila leg of the most-talked about the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League 2015.
Carrying the banner for the Philippine Mavericks are world no. 1 Serena Williams, Milos Raonic, Mark Philippoussis, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Jarmila Gajdosova, Richard Gasquet, Ajla Tomljanovic alongside local hero, and player-coach Treat Huey.
Some avid tennis fans paid as much as P50,000 to also see tennis stars Rafael Nadal, Ana Ivanovic, Belinda Bencic, Nick Kyrgios, Kristina Mladenovic, Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Daniel Nestor, Dustin Brown, among others, alongside legends Marat Safin, Fabrice Santoro, Goran Ivanisevic and Carlos Moya, live in action.
It’s actually a double whammy for me as an avid collector of Coca-Cola, which incidentally, is the main backer of this one-a-kind event.
Happiness filled the air as I joined fellow collectors during the Christmas Party of the Coca-Cola Collectors Club Philippines and with no less than Coca-Cola executive, Atty. Adel Tamano gracing the event.
Coca-Cola has been a long-time supporter of world-class sporting events like the Olympics and World Cup Football and it’s now banking on another event that is poised to change the face of world-class tennis.
Combo Punch: Listen to our radio program Fightnews Hour on DZSR Sports Radio 918 on Wednesdays, 7:30 to 9 p.m., as we have as guest, Filipina-American boxing and MMA lady fighter Ana Julaton. She will talk about her upcoming fight in the ONE Championship’s Manila leg on Dec. 11 at the Mall of Asia Arena.