Bellator MMA announced that it has signed “Big” John McCarthy to serve as color commentator. McCarthy will start his duties on Saturday, January 20th on a big Bellator card to start the year.
Although not confirmed, the signing might infer that McCarthy is done as a referee. But, his quotes in the Bellator press release seems to make it sound like we will not see him in as the third person in the cage or Octagon.
Via Bellator press release:
“I first want to say how grateful I am for the opportunity I have been given to work with the incredible team Bellator has assembled. It is always so hard to leave something you love, but I have always wanted to step away based on my terms rather than someone else’s. My goals are to work as hard as I can to meet the expectations everyone will have for me and to hopefully someday exceed them.” McCarthy said. “I cannot think of anyone I would rather be working with than Scott Coker. Scott has always been a person I admire because of his honesty, loyalty and love for the martial arts. I want to thank everyone from Bellator and Viacom for the trust you are bestowing upon me to keep the commentating of Bellator MMA at the highest levels of the sport.”
The release also announced that it has signed Chael Sonnen to an extension to remain a part of “select Bellator broadcasts.”
Payout Perspective:
Late last year, it was announced that Jimmy Smith would no longer be with Bellator and now we see the reason why they let him go. It will be weird not having McCarthy refereeing a big fight again but the commentating spot might be something that he was looking forward to do.
Leave a Reply