John McCarthy 'did exactly what you should never do' when scoring Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan 2

Even “Big” John McCarthy can admit to making a mistake when it comes to judging a fight.

Not many have as much experience as McCarthy when it comes to understanding what happens inside the cage during an MMA fight, but the longtime referee and current Bellator commentator admitted he made an error in judgment which sparked a recent back-and-forth with UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.

“Here’s the first thing, and Aljamain Sterling can hate me, again, I honestly don’t care, but I will tell you, I don’t hate him,” McCarthy told MMA Junkie Radio. “I think he’s a phenomenal fighter. I think he’s just a dynamite fighter and he deserves to be where he’s at. But when you take a look at judging of a fight, I did exactly what you should never do, and that’s have friends over, be jaw-jackin’ with them while the fight’s going on, and then think that you saw that fight as you should have. I didn’t.”

Originally, McCarthy said there was ‘no way’ Sterling won the first round of the UFC 273 bout against Petr Yan. His comment sparked a firey reply from Sterling who was also slighted by UFC president Dana White when it came to the scorecards of the bantamweight title fight.

Sterling won the fight via split decision, with two judges issuing scores of 48-47 in his favor. The first round of the contest was the only round in which the judges were split.

“That guy’s just a complete idiot,” Sterling said of McCarthy in an interview with MMA Junkie.

While McCarthy certainly saw and heard Sterling’s responses to his initial opinion on the contest, he doesn’t hold any ill-will towards the bantamweight champ. The former referee also played the fight back and come to a different conclusion.

“I went back and watched it and said I can definitely see why someone would say Aljamain won that,” McCarthy said. “If you’re going for volume, you’re gonna go more for  Aljamain. If you’re going more for power, you’re gonna go more for Yan, but it’s razor-close. And you know, I was wrong.”