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Evan
02-18-2009, 04:28 PM
Do you think it's time for the UFC and Fedor to sit down and figure out a way to get him into the Octagon?


You know what? I would love to see Fedor in the Octagon. There's been so much said back and forth, and really it's promotional stuff. Dana White knows that Fedor is a phenomenal fighter. Dana White has tried to sign Fedor, and I understand why he couldn't sign him. It's not Dana. Fedor's management team, their promotion, M-1 Global, wants certain things and they use Fedor to get those things. UFC says, "We're not going to promote your promotion, we're going to promote a fighter."

Would I like to see Fedor fighting there? Sure. I want to see -- no matter what promotion -- the best fighters fighting each other. I don't watch promotions. I don't care what promotion is putting on the fight if it's a good fight. The thing the UFC brings to you is you know those three letters mean you're getting a quality product. They've worked hard for that and they deserve that. There are others that are doing that, too. Strikeforce is doing it. I think Affliction has put on two phenomenal shows.

Big John McCarthy, the referee who has been one of the most prominent faces in mixed martial arts for almost as long as the UFC has existed, talked to me Tuesday for a wide-ranging interview in which he discussed his feelings about returning to MMA after a long layoff, and his thoughts about his 15-year career in the sport.


What was the atmosphere like for Fedor vs. Arlovski?

It was great. Any time you have two guys of that caliber stepping into the ring, that's an exciting time for the fans, for the other fighters -- the other fighters all came out front to watch that fight because you don't have the opportunity to see two of the best guys going at it very often. It's the same with Georges St Pierre against BJ Penn. The fighters want to see that because you don't get that atmosphere all the time, and when you have it, it's a unique thing. The atmosphere was electric, and I was very happy to be able to do that fight.

You acted very quickly. Fedor's knockout punch came out of nowhere, and in an instant, Arlovski was unconscious and you were standing over him.

Well, sometimes you're just looking at the right thing at the right time. I was in a position to see Arlovski's eyes when he got hit, and his eyes showed me there was nobody home. He was out. Because he was up in the air, it was unusual because the punch actually turned him, and he turned towards me, luckily. If the punch had been a left hand, I wouldn't have seen what I saw. I saw the way he fell, and in the sport of mixed martial arts, the referee stops the fight if you cannot intelligently defend yourself. And you see the way Andrei fell, he fell face first with his hands at his side. He wasn't going to be able to defend himself, so stopping that is what I'm there to do, and fortunately I was able to do my job.