Jon Jones: “I Would Prefer Any Other Referee But [“Big” John McCarthy]” For UFC 200

As noted, when the referees and judges were announced for the UFC 200 main event between Jon Jones and UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier, the Jones camp filed a formal protest of the selection of veteran referee “Big” John McCarthy being given the assignment.

On Tuesday, “Bones” Jones commented on the matter personally.

“I would prefer any other referee but him,” said Jones.

The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion would go on to elaborate on his concerns regarding McCarthy as the referee for his rematch against D.C.

“It’s been a mixture of many things throughout the years,” Jones said. “Just the energy. I don’t feel like we have the best energy. It’s an accumulation of some of the things that happened during some fights and just personal interactions. I just don’t feel as, you don’t need anything stacking up against you when you’re fighting a guy a great fighter like DC.”

As Jones continued, he explained his belief that if he were in McCarthy’s shoes and knew a fighter didn’t want him officiating his bout, he would voluntarily remove himself from contention.

“He [officiates] probably once a week somewhere,” Jones said. “For me, this is my life, this is my story, this is my legacy. This is everything to me, and if I don’t agree with his energy that he brings to the fight, if I was him, I wouldn’t want to be a part of it. You know what I mean? If you’re not welcome, why would you even want to be part of someone’s big night who doesn’t want you there. I would say, ‘you know, I’ll back out of this one, I don’t need to be a part of this one.'”

Jon Jones fights Daniel Cormier in a rematch for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in the main event of UFC 200 on Saturday, July 9, 2016 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.