“Big” John believes that the strongest league in the world could take part in a joint event, following the example of the New Year’s show of Bellator and Rizin, without suffering any reputational damage.
“You don’t have to take champions – you can pick five people from the top 15 and put on some really interesting fights,” McCarthy said in a recent episode of his podcast. “It won’t do any damage to the UFC. If you believe you have the best fighters, then you should come out and show dominance. It doesn’t make any sense to the UFC right now, but if ONE and PFL join Rizin and Bellator and put on shows like this every year, bringing their best fighters together in the cage, who knows?”
McCarthy recalls that White’s statement refutes the fact that at one time the UFC did not manage to agree with Fedor Emelianenko, who is considered by many to be the best fighter in the history of mixed martial arts.
“It has already been proven that this is not true. There are many examples of the opposite, and the most striking of them is Fedor Emelianenko. He was very good and deserved to fight in the UFC. But he decided he didn’t want to put up with some things and went his own way. I don’t want to say that White is wrong, but he can’t say that all the best are in the UFC, because it’s not true. He doesn’t lie, but he doesn’t look back and say – this, this and this guy are the exceptions.”
Recall that on February 4 at Bellator 290 in Inglewood, 46-year-old Fedor Emelianenko will try to take away the heavyweight championship belt from American Ryan Bader, ending his legendary career with this fight.