John McCarthy weighs in on Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane controversy
Veteran MMA referee John McCarthy has given his thoughts on the back of the head controversy surrounding Alex Pereira.
Last weekend at UFC Freedom 250, Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane went head to head for the UFC interim heavyweight championship. In the end, it was the Frenchman who managed to get his hand raised, finishing off the Brazilian sensation with a flurry of strikes – featuring a handful that many considered to be illegal.
Alex Pereira himself has come out and voiced his displeasure at how everything played out, especially going after referee Herb Dean. Alas, it certainly seems like the evidence suggests Gane, on this occasion, wasn’t fighting dirty as the majority originally thought he was.
In a recent video, John McCarthy weighed in on the situation regarding Pereira and Gane.
McCarthy’s view on Pereira vs Gane
“I’m not saying that Alex possibly didn’t get hit to the back of the head,” McCarthy said. “But when you’re looking at it in real time and being in a position that Herb Dean was in, I have a fighter who’s in what we call a finishing sequence based upon he had hurt Alex with a good shot, hurt him on the ground with a couple of shots, and they’re moving, and Herb decides that none of those are in the position of – and I can’t say that Herb saw all of them because you don’t see everything as you’re trying to move with the fighters.
“Some of it you see, there’s things you might not see as far as the exact area based upon what side you’re on and what side you’re going after.
“So, Alex works himself out of that position, and he gets himself back to his feet. I’m not saying they didn’t hurt him. I’m sure they all hurt him, but he was tough enough and good enough to get himself back to his feet to get back into the fight where he was going to be at least more successful.
“Herb decided that nothing (he) saw is going to make (him) take Ciryl Gane and stop him, and either remove the position as the lesser of evil or remove the position and take points based upon what (he) saw as far as the shots (Gane) was landing because a lot of it he was looking at was body’s in motion. Alex was moving some, too, which was creating some of those off-target strikes.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
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Topics:
Alex Pereira Ciryl Gane John McCarthy UFC
