Veteran official John McCarthy likes where MMA is currently at in terms of its ruleset and officiating. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things he would change.
McCarthy, a retired MMA referee who helped create the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts rule set in the early 2000s, wants to see the sport adopt knees to a grounded opponent – which are currently illegal.
“I would love to see it knees to the head someday, but I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I would like to see it,” McCarthy told MMA Junkie Radio. “I think it would be a good thing for the sport.”
Knees to a grounded opponent have long been a divisive and controversial topic in MMA. Many romanticize them, as they were a key aspect of the now-defunct Japanese MMA promotion PRIDE FC and are currently allowed in Rizin FF and ONE Championship in Asia, while some think they are too brutal.
McCarthy thinks knees to a grounded opponent would make the MMA more realistic and exciting.
“I’m going to be honest, as a fan of the sport and even as an official, I look and say knees to the head to someone that’s on the ground, not soccer kicks, it’s different, but knees to the head of somebody on the ground could be effective in the fight,” McCarthy explained. “What it can do is that it keeps the defensive fighter from putting themselves in positions that they could be attacked with a knee if it was legal, but they know that they can’t, so they’re utilizing rules to protect themselves than skill sets.
“You go and you watch fighters that switch organizations to Rizin or ONE and have to change. They change quickly. Demetrious Johnson was a guy that got hurt and lost to Moraes off of a knee when he was grounded, but he learned from it and came back.
The main argument against knees to a grounded opponent is that they make the sport more dangerous. However, McCarthy disagrees.
“When you sit there and look at it and go, ‘Well, that’s terrible for the fighter,’ what’s the difference between being able to knee someone on the head when they’re standing or if they’re on the ground? There is no difference,” McCarthy said. “I look at it and say that I honestly believe that knees to the head should be opened up. It would open the fight up and make the fights a little bit more realistic and more exciting at times. Any time you give an offensive tool to a fighter, it opens the fight up.”
