John McCarthy responds to Ariel Helwani

John McCarthy and Ariel Helwani got at each other on social media after the recent 30 for 30 documentary featuring Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell aired.

There, McCarthy tweeted at Helwani saying he is wrong for saying Zuffa ran towards regulation. Now, in a long rant on his ‘Weighing In’ show with Josh Thomson, McCarthy gave his side of the story.

“It was funny because I’m watching that 30 for 30, I was on that 30 for 30 taping forms and stuff. As I’m watching it, I hear something that Ariel say what is a static lie that Zuffa came up with long ago. That Dana and Lorenzo saw the UFC, we were going to the shows and we saw this diamond in the rough. And they were running from regulation and if we ran towards regulation that was the way to get this sport growing. That is a nice story but it is bullshit. When I heard Ariel say, when Zuffa bought it, they ran towards regulation. It pissed me off because this is a guy that I respect, I respect Ariel, he has done a lot for this sport.

“But, flat out the way I look at it, he was in journalism college when I was in court trying to save the sport and the UFC. There are a lot of things he has no idea that took place and people that did things that saved the sport of MMA. When you just validate, because Ariel has a huge following and a lot of people respect his opinion and I respect his opinion, but when he validates an absolute a falsehood, a lie, the old UFC was running from regulation. The new, better Zuffa, they ran towards regulation, well both of those are not true.

Why ‘Big John’ got so mad is the fact he was a part of the people after UFC 14 trying to get the sport regulated. He later goes on to say, after being pulled from cable, the UFC and McCarthy came up with a ruleset to try and get regulated and back on cable. He also issued an apology to Ariel Helwani saying he should have texted him instead of making it public.

What do you make of John McCarthy’s comments?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 10/17/2019.