Big John Talks Fedor and “Let’s Get It On”
MMA Madness posted a really good phone interview with UFC ref supreme “Big” John McCarthy. Two of the topics that interested me the most concerned the history of his catch phrase “let’s get it on” and his thoughts on Fedor. You can check out the full interview at MMA Madness but here is what he had to say about the two aforementioned subjects.
MMA Madness: How did you come up with your trademarked phrase, “Let’s Get It On!”?
McCarthy: Art Davie was one of the owners of the UFC. Art was talking to me and said he wanted the fights started in a martial arts way. I said, ‘Well what you want?’ and he said, ‘I don’t know — just say something.’ I said, ‘Well, what do you want me to say?’ and he said, ‘You have to come up with something.’ I figured that with two guys standing on opposite sides of the cage about to beat the hell out of each other, how about ‘Are you ready? Let’s get it on!’ Art said that it was perfect, and that’s basically how it started.MMA Madness: What do you think about Fedor Emelianenko? How beneficial do you think it would be to have him in UFC?
McCarthy: Well, that’s two questions. What do I think of Fedor? I think Fedor is a phenomenal fighter. He’s extremely well-rounded; he does things really well. He’s the best at some things, and what he’s not the best at he’s good at. He’s got very good standup as far as he’s willing to throw. He throws a lot of punches from different angles; his wrestling ability is good; his hips are very good; his ability to stay up at times and his hip movement is outstanding; his ground-and-pound is as good as anyone’s has ever been; he throws punches from the ground harder because of the way that he turns his hips; and his submission game is good. He’s a phenomenal fighter. How would he do in the UFC? I think given time that’d he be as dominant as he was in PRIDE. But I think that if you throw him in against a top guy when he’s not used to the cage, the different rules, or the size of the cage, a lot of things would work against him. If he was brought into the UFC I think that he should take some fights to get himself acclimated to it, because there is a difference. I think that’d be a smart thing to do.
