Veteran referee John McCarthy addresses being targeted by fans for "horrible" UFC Kansas City decision 

UFC Kansas City witnessed a judging controversy, the likes of which have seemingly become rampant in the sport of late. The prelims kicked off with a women's bantamweight clash between Joselyne Edwards and Lucie Pudilova, which ended in a questionable decision.

Despite Pudilova dominating Edwards on the ground for the majority of the fight, the Czech prospect came up on the short side of a split decision at UFC Kansas City. Fans only agreed with debutant UFC judge Henry Guery.

Some fans also partly blamed veteran UFC referee John McCarthy, who, after the formation of the unified rules of MMA, had pioneered changes to discourage 'meaningless' grappling.

While McCarthy also disagreed with the scorecards like most fans, 'Big John' doesn't want to be held accountable for such judging fiascos. The 60-year-old said on the Weighing In podcast:

"This was a horrible, horrible decision. I had people actually saying stuff on Twitter to me about this fight. And I watched it and it's like, 'I can't help the judges don't do things right. I can't help when a judge doesn't understand what the hell they are looking at. Pudilova took Joselyne Edwards down, basically at will throughout the fight except for the third round, which I would have given to Joselyne Edwards."

Watch the full episode below:

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John McCarthy suggests changes to avoid MMA judging controversies like the one at UFC Kansas City

John McCarthy, along with the likes of Marc Ratner, was part of the body that laid down the original Unified Rules of MMA that was adopted by the Association of Boxing Commissions in 2009.

The veteran referee has since been an integral part of any changes in the sport's ruleset, including major reforms in 2016-17. McCarthy, like the rest of us, is admittedly perturbed by the rapid increase in botched MMA scorecards like the one at UFC Kansas City.

According to 'Big John', the seat placements of the judges might have a significant role to play in such judging controversies. The 60-year-old said on a previous episode of the Weighing In podcast:

"It's not easy to see things and then you've got the referee moving in front of you at times... You give one judge a good seat. One, that's where you see the ring card girl sitting, there's one judge sitting there. That judge has a good clear view. Other than that, the other two judges get sh*t seats... You want better scores, change it. Because you should."

Catch John McCarthy's comments below: