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Veteran MMA referee 'Big' John McCarthy minced no words as he accused Dana White of copying WWE honcho Vince McMahon. On episode #171 of his podcast Weighing In with Josh Thomson, McCarthy said the UFC president did more than take inspiration from Vince McMahon. According to the former referee, Dana White "stole everything" off the WWE chairman and CEO.
While discussing UFC 265 and the interim heavyweight title, Josh Thomson referenced Dana White's words at the post-fight press conference. White had said that even Vince McMahon couldn't have written a better script, talking about the history between Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou. The two heavyweights were teammates inunder Fernand Lopez at MMA Factory in Paris, France. Ngannou eventually left Lopez while Gane continued under his tutelage.
The former teammates will now fight for the unified championship, as the UFC targets an event in France for the said bout. Speaking about Dana White's comments, John McCarthy said:
"Dana needs to bow down to Vince [McMahon] because he stole everything from Vince. He stole his persona, he stole exactly how he runs his company, all of that."
McCarthy continued to hold nothing back as he called the interim heavyweight belt a 'fake title.'
"So to sit there and say that Vince couldn't have written this better, ok, well he taught you exactly what to do and you're the one that kind of tried to build this together by creating this fake title for a guy that shouldn't be the champion based upon you have a real champion sitting there" John McCarthy said.
Watch John McCarthy and Josh Thomson discuss Dana White taking inspiration from Vince McMahon at the 55:00 mark of the video below:
John McCarthy believes Dana White is trying to strong-arm Francis Ngannou
'Big' John McCarthy believes the only reason the interim title fight transpired between Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis is Dana White trying to corner Francis Ngannou. According to the veteran referee, who has spent many years with the UFC and White, Francis Ngannou most likely asked for better pay and was sidelined.
The MMA community worldwide was shocked when Dana White announced an interim heavyweight title three months after Francis Ngannou won the belt from Stipe Miocic at UFC 260. Speaking about the reason for the interim belt, McCarthy said:
"You [Dana White] just don't want to pay him [Francis Ngannou], so you're trying to bully him into a corner by creating a title and saying 'This guy can be my heavyweight champion' and what are you doing?"
McCarthy continued by saying:
"You have to look through all the bulls**t and understand what's going on. What's going on is that Dana's in a position where he has 2 heavyweights that are his main guys - he's got Francis Ngannou and he's got Jon Jones. He can't get either one right now to agree to fight for what he wants to pay."
John McCarthy believes that if Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane cannot come to terms for the fight, Dana White may book former champion Stipe Miocic in a title fight.
Do you think John McCarthy is right? Sound off in the comments below!
