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Former UFC referee John McCarthy is the latest addition to a list of people criticizing the promotion's pay structure for its fighters. McCarthy recently took to Twitter to voice his concerns regarding the UFC's problematic pay structure as compared to other major sporting leagues in the US.
Sharing a tweet of the comparisons, John McCarthy wrote on Twitter:
"And this is something that simply has to change"
As per the tweet shared by John McCarthy, MLB and NBA pay 54% and 50% of their respective revenues to their athletes. Similarly, the NFL, considered to be one of the richest leagues in the world, pays a whopping 48% revenue share to its athletes. While rival MMA promotion Bellator also pays 44.7% of it's revenue to fighters, the UFC lags behind at 16%.
There have been several concerns raised about the UFC's pay structure in recent times. While big names like Francis Ngannou, Sean O'Malley and Paulo Costa have criticized the promotion, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is yet to make his return to the octagon due to a fighter pay dispute.
John McCarthy has cut ties with the UFC
Veteran referee John McCarthy retired from the UFC in 2018 to join its rival Bellator as a color commentator. According to McCarthy, his retirement was fueled by an injury he sustained during training. Regarding his new gig, John McCarthy told Luke Thomas from Sirius XM:
"The truth is, I got hurt back in July 2017. I got hurt bad. During training I was grappling with some guys to the point I got held in a choke I was letting a guy do, but he wasn't doing it right. I was fine after and the next day, I was a mess. It screwed me up. It ended up crushing a couple of my discs and breaking them off. I ended up having a couple of surgeries off of it and that's why I was gone for a bit. I couldn't even move my arm. If you're asking me if I've officiated my last UFC fight, I don't think the UFC wants a Bellator commentator officiating their fights. That's totally understandable. Have I officiated my last UFC fight? As of right now, yeah."
