After announcing his retirement almost one year ago, John McCarthy has been doing commentary for various fight organizations and The Fight Network, the California State Athletic Commission has assigned “Big” John McCarthy a referee’s position at Strikeforce “Destruction” on Nov. 21 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

LET’S GET IT ON!

[7/3/2008] Retired Referee and MMA Legend “Big” John McCarthy Joins Team Affliction as Color Commentator “Affliction Banned” PPV July 19 in Anaheim

SIGNAL HILL, California (July 3, 2008) – Former MMA referee “Big” John McCarthy may have retired from working in the UFC® Octagon but he will be a color commentator for the July 19th “Affliction Banned” pay-per-view event, featuring the WAMMA heavyweight championship fight between the most lethal MMA heavyweight of all-time, Russian M1 superstar legend Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko (27-1), and former UFC heavyweight champion Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia (24-4), live from Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

A black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, McCarthy refereed 535 fights during his 14 years as an MMA referee, and he operates an MMA school in Valencia, California. He started refereeing in the UFC’s second show in 1994 and retired this past December. An MMA ambassador all over the world, “Big” John developed into being as much a part of the UFC as the fighters that entered the Octagon. Now, though, he is a member of Team Affliction.

“Affliction Banned,” presented by Affliction Entertainment, is so stacked with talent that it had to be separated into two live shows produced for broadcast. The night’s activities will kick off with a one-hour, free live telecast on FSN (Fox Sports Net) in the United States and on The Fight Network in Canada starting at 5 PM Pacific (8 PM/ET), dubbed “Affliction Live.” Following that is “Affliction Banned” – five incredible fights on pay-per-view starting at 6 PM/PT (9 PM/ET) via iN DEMAND, TVN, Shaw Communications, Viewers Choice Canada, DirecTV, DISH Network, Bell ExpressVue and Star Choice in the United States and Canada for a suggested retail price of $39.95.

Tickets for “Affliction Banned” range between $50.00 and $1,000.00, and are on sale at Honda Center’s Box Office and also online at Ticketmaster.com.

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Since the Affliction mega-card was announced a few months ago featuring a cast of big names, headlined by Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia, the UFC has tried to battle against Affliction by putting on a free event of SpikeTV featuring a main event bout with Anderson Silva going against James Irvin.

Former UFC referee Big John McCarthy is even part of the announce team for the Affliction: Banned event, and is quoted as saying the Affliction event will be “the best heavyweight card ever put together” according to a promotional flier put out by Affliction. On the same flier, they even quote Dana White and other UFC personalities (photo below – thanks to MMAmadness.com).

So to counter Dana White and his spur-of-the-moment FREE show to steal viewers from Affliction, they’ve announced that FSN will show two Affliction fights for free also, at 8pm EST July 19th. Viewers will get to see Aleksander Emelianenko fight Paul Buentello, and Vitor Belfort fight Terry Martin, for free on FSN.

What will you be watching on July 19th?