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John McCarthy has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Ciryl Gane's fight-ending sequence vs. Alex Pereira.
Pereira (13-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) plans to appeal his TKO loss to Gane (14-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) in their interim heavyweight title fight Sunday at UFC Freedom 250 from the White House in Washington DC. Gane dropped Pereira with a jab in Round 2 and rushed to finish him as Pereira grabbed a hold of his leg.
Pereira posted images showing lumps on the back of the head and accused Gane of landing numerous illegal blows. Pereira eventually worked his way back up but wound up getting finished on the feet. He went off on referee Herb Dean for mishandling the situation, prompting a response from Dean to explain where exactly the back of the head is considered.
McCarthy argues that Pereira was moving around, which made it hard for Gane to control where his strikes were landing.
"Pereira gets hurt, he goes down, and Gane goes after him, and he starts swinging," McCarthy told MMA Junkie Radio. "He hits him with a couple of really hard shots. They were all legal, right to the side of the head, and as he goes in, he starts to go down, and he starts throwing elbows. What you have to understand is he's throwing an elbow, but he's also being pushed by Alex, who's grabbing a leg and now pushing forward, which changes as someone's trying to throw something. Your target can be changed by the momentum or the push or just the body in motion of the opponent.
"And that's why, in the back, when we're going over our fight instructions, we talk to the fighters and say, 'Look, if you start to open up and you start to hit that person, and you're going after that side trying to target the ears, and then their head moves or their body position moves and you hit them square to the back of the head, it's not on you.' I can't ask you to stop that shot, but you're going to hear me call out and tell you, 'Watch the back of the head.' When I say watch the back of the head, what it means to you is that I'm calling out your name saying, 'Ciryl, that's on him. He's the one that caused that, but I can't have you come with a second one now in the same area.'"
Pereira requested that Dean never officiate his fights again, but McCarthy gave the veteran official the benefit of the doubt.
"I'm not saying that Alex possibly didn't get hit to the back of the head," McCarthy said. "But when you're looking at it in real time and being in a position that Herb Dean was in, I have a fighter who's in what we call a finishing sequence based upon he had hurt Alex with a good shot, hurt him on the ground with a couple of shots, and they're moving, and Herb decides that none of those are in the position of – and I can't say that Herb saw all of them because you don't see everything as you're trying to move with the fighters. Some of it you see, there's things you might not see as far as the exact area based upon what side you're on and what side you're going after.
"So, Alex works himself out of that position, and he gets himself back to his feet. I'm not saying they didn't hurt him. I'm sure they all hurt him, but he was tough enough and good enough to get himself back to his feet to get back into the fight where he was going to be at least more successful. Herb decided that nothing (he) saw is going to make (him) take Ciryl Gane and stop him, and either remove the position as the lesser of evil or remove the position and take points based upon what (he) saw as far as the shots (Gane) was landing because a lot of it he was looking at was body's in motion. Alex was moving some, too, which was creating some of those off-target strikes."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: John McCarthy defends referee from Alex Pereira's complaints
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Pereira (13-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) plans to appeal his TKO loss to Gane (14-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) in their interim heavyweight title fight Sunday at UFC Freedom 250 from the White House in Washington DC. Gane dropped Pereira with a jab in Round 2 and rushed to finish him as Pereira grabbed a hold of his leg.
Pereira posted images showing lumps on the back of the head and accused Gane of landing numerous illegal blows. Pereira eventually worked his way back up but wound up getting finished on the feet. He went off on referee Herb Dean for mishandling the situation, prompting a response from Dean to explain where exactly the back of the head is considered.
McCarthy argues that Pereira was moving around, which made it hard for Gane to control where his strikes were landing.
"Pereira gets hurt, he goes down, and Gane goes after him, and he starts swinging," McCarthy told MMA Junkie Radio. "He hits him with a couple of really hard shots. They were all legal, right to the side of the head, and as he goes in, he starts to go down, and he starts throwing elbows. What you have to understand is he's throwing an elbow, but he's also being pushed by Alex, who's grabbing a leg and now pushing forward, which changes as someone's trying to throw something. Your target can be changed by the momentum or the push or just the body in motion of the opponent.
"And that's why, in the back, when we're going over our fight instructions, we talk to the fighters and say, 'Look, if you start to open up and you start to hit that person, and you're going after that side trying to target the ears, and then their head moves or their body position moves and you hit them square to the back of the head, it's not on you.' I can't ask you to stop that shot, but you're going to hear me call out and tell you, 'Watch the back of the head.' When I say watch the back of the head, what it means to you is that I'm calling out your name saying, 'Ciryl, that's on him. He's the one that caused that, but I can't have you come with a second one now in the same area.'"
Pereira requested that Dean never officiate his fights again, but McCarthy gave the veteran official the benefit of the doubt.
"I'm not saying that Alex possibly didn't get hit to the back of the head," McCarthy said. "But when you're looking at it in real time and being in a position that Herb Dean was in, I have a fighter who's in what we call a finishing sequence based upon he had hurt Alex with a good shot, hurt him on the ground with a couple of shots, and they're moving, and Herb decides that none of those are in the position of – and I can't say that Herb saw all of them because you don't see everything as you're trying to move with the fighters. Some of it you see, there's things you might not see as far as the exact area based upon what side you're on and what side you're going after.
"So, Alex works himself out of that position, and he gets himself back to his feet. I'm not saying they didn't hurt him. I'm sure they all hurt him, but he was tough enough and good enough to get himself back to his feet to get back into the fight where he was going to be at least more successful. Herb decided that nothing (he) saw is going to make (him) take Ciryl Gane and stop him, and either remove the position as the lesser of evil or remove the position and take points based upon what (he) saw as far as the shots (Gane) was landing because a lot of it he was looking at was body's in motion. Alex was moving some, too, which was creating some of those off-target strikes."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: John McCarthy defends referee from Alex Pereira's complaints
Continue reading...
