"Big" John McCarthy not issued license to referee by NSAC

By Jason Benfari September 22, 2009Iconic MMA referee "Big" John McCarthy was recently denied a license to officiate events in Nevada according to NSAC officials. McCarthy, who came to prominence in the early 1990's, is widely considered among the world's best MMA referee's and is certainly the sports most popular. He refereed nearly every major UFC event from UFC 2 to The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale in December of 2007 when he left to take a position with The Fight Network and do broadcast work for Affliction. On the way out, McCarthy expressed his disdain toward the Nevada commission for its choice of cageside judges and referees. Many believe that criticism to be the true source of the commissions decision not to license the popular ref. "I had a criticism toward people being put into place as far as officiating," McCarthy told Sherdog. "I have a problem when you have an official who is put into place to have an impact on the s...