John McCarthy on infamous Mike Davis-Thomas Gifford fight: Refs should consider what's best for fighter

Mike Davis had an impressive showing against Thomas Gifford at UFC on ESPN+ 19 on Oct. 12 in Tampa, Fla., but the story of the fight wasn’t his performance.

Davis put on a serious beating on Gifford, eventually taking him out with just 15 seconds left in the fight. A battered Gifford was in survival mode for the majority of the fight, and had nothing left to give. His corner opted not to throw in the towel, and the referee let Gifford continue.

But pioneering referee John McCarthy, like most others, believed the fight should have been stopped before it was, as Gifford suffered unnecessary damage throughout the fight. He thinks there was no way Gifford would have come back to get the win. McCarthy said had he been the third man in, the bout would have been waved off before things got out of hand.

“Now would have I done it differently? Yes,” McCarthy told MMA Junkie during a recent Q&A. “I can guarantee you the fight never would have seen the third round, it probably would have been stopped long before that and I’m going to get him out in a certain way because there’s things as a referee you’re supposed to consider. This is what you consider, first off, what’s the best for the fighter, well in this situation, I’ve got a guy, can he win on the cards, I know just watching the fight, you’ve lost both rounds 10-8, there’s no way to win on the cards, ok, you can’t come back from that.”

“That’s extra damage that he took that he did not need to take. You can only give so much before that shiny diamond becomes a crushed rock that just doesn’t sparkle anymore and that’s everybody.”

And McCarthy thinks that corners are usually hesitant to stop a fight, due to the likely backlash they’ll receive from their fighters. While they should consider their charge’s health, it’s often a tough position to be in.

“Most corners will not throw the towel because many times the fighter goes you didn’t believe in me, you thought I couldn’t come back,” McCarthy said.

However McCarthy believes that referee Andrew Glenn, who was refereeing the fight between Davis and Gifford on Oct. 12, may have been put in a difficult spot, but should have known better.

“The referee involved in it is from Florida, he’s not one of the traveling referees that there are and you know that this is his big moment,” McCarthy said. “He gets to work a UFC and this is what he’s been dreaming of and now he’s in this position that he goes man this guy is taking a lot of shots, I can’t stop this fight because I don’t want people to boo me. I don’t want to upset people, I don’t know what to do. So what do we do when we don’t know what to do? And he does nothing.”

The commission pulled Glenn from subsequent UFC Tampa fight assignments after the Gifford fiasco.

Another factor that McCarthy said may play a factor in a corner’s decision to not wave off a fight is the UFC’s win-bonus system. Fighters often want to keep fighting so they’re not deprived of a potential victory bonus, which often doubles their overall pay.

Bellator, on the other hand, doesn’t award fighters a win bonus, paying a flat fee win or lose, which is the way McCarthy thinks it should be.

“Most corners are not going to, the fighter, and I know this is hard to understand, if you ask a fighter and this is one of the things I love about Bellator, Bellator doesn’t have a win bonus,” McCarthy said. “Here’s your rate, this is what you get, win or lose, they’re going to get that. They come out, they have a bad performance, you get it. You come out and have a great performance, you get it.”

“You know what you’re making because every fighter, wherever the UFC goes, you ask the fighters, how much are you making for this fight, oh I’m making $60,000, you’re making $60,000? yeah 30 to show and 30 to win. You haven’t fought yet, you have already mentally spent that $60,000. It’s gone, they know they’re making that extra 30, now that doesn’t always happen.”