Jon “Bones” Jones has asked that “Big” John McCarthy not ref his August 9 fight in UFC 200.
Before his rematch with Daniel Cormier, Jon Jones and his camp filed a complaint with the Nevada State Athletic Commission asking for another referee.
McCarthy will be the referee for the UFC 200 main event in Las Vegas despite the complaint from Jones.
“I really don’t want to get into it too deeply. I’ll just say based on some interactions that I’ve had with him, I don’t really feel as if it would be an energy that isn’t necessarily the best in there, ” explained Jones. “To him, it’s just refereeing a fight and he does it probably once a week somewhere. For me, this is my life, this is my story, this is my legacy, this is everything to me and if I don’t agree with his energy that he brings to the fight, if I was him, I wouldn’t want to be a part of it.”
“I don’t want to go as far as to say you’re not welcome, you know like why would you even want to be a part of someone’s big night who doesn’t want you in there with them? I would respect that and say, You know what, I’ll back out of this one, I don’t need to be a part of this one if they don’t want me to be part of it, reasoned Jones. “I don’t feel as if we’ve had the best interactions over the years, and I just really hope that he’s not the referee.”