Tim Kennedy Slams John McCarthy: “He F****d Up Majorly”
Tim Kennedy lost via TKO in his UFC 178 bout against Yoel Romero this past Saturday at UFC 178, however the bout was riddled with controversy. From Kennedy grabbing Romero’s glove, to Romero’s corner buying their fighter extra time. (Read our breakdown of the situation HERE)
Kennedy joined Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour to discuss what went wrong in the bout:
“Man, I thought the fight was over twice. If anybody is to blame, it’s totally me for the outcome. Someone has to step up and be the bigger guy in all of this. Dana knows he cheated, the Nevada commission knows he cheated. His corner knows they cheated. They are bragging about it, Liborio is coming up and apologizing, Yoel comes to me in the back and apologizes. They all know what happened. It’s the oldest trick in the book. If this was any other sport, the NFL or the NBA, they’d be like, ‘man it’s the end of the fourth quarter, were going to go an extra 28 seconds.’ This is beyond unprofessional and tragic. I though the fight had ended. When John came in, I thought that was the end of the fight. I see my corner coming in with the stool, I see his corner working on him, and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?”
“My corner tells me to be careful because he is going to swing widely. But I can see his corner and he is saying no mas. I’m pointing at Dana, the crowd, his corner, the commission, the judges like what is going on? If he gets 28 seconds to recover, imagine if I had an extra 28 seconds at the end of round two. The guy wouldn’t be walking for a month. But no, John gave him an extra 28 seconds. I was gone, I wasn’t even mentally there anymore and that was a big mistake on my part. I thought the fight was over not once, but twice. So I rushed in and made a huge mistake. I was gone. I was thinking it was the end, I wasn’t even thinking about fighting.”
“Everything they did was calculated and planned. The extra Vaseline, to throwing in towels, to dumping bottles of water on the floor to leaving the stool in there; all of those things, they’ve been doing it for 50 years. When did Ali do it, 40 or 50 years ago? That’s how pathetic this is. And the fact that they are smug about it, makes it more tragic and makes it that much more unprofessional. I think that John (McCarthy) is the best referee in the promotion. He and Herb Dean, I have great respect for them. He (McCarthy) fucked up majorly in my fight. For being the best ref in the world, he got owned that night by a bunch of guys doing shady things. He got played by all three of them. He just let it happen. Before the fight, I told John, ‘If I hurt him, he is going to start playing cheap, I promise.’ He said, ‘Is this my first day working here?’ I told him,’No it’s not.’ When Derek Brunson hurt him, he punched him right in the balls. It wasn’t even close, he punched him right in the dick. When he gets hurt, he fouls intentionally. So I was ready for it, but I was trying to get John ready for it, and obviously he wasn’t. He got owned.”
After the bout Kennedy stated that he would appeal the loss to the NSAC, however he revealed today that he isn’t sure whether or not he will do so.
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