John McCarthy Thinks Jason High’s Punishment Was Too Harsh

Veteran referee Big John McCarthy spoke to Submission Radio to talk about Jason High’s release from the UFC after he shoved referee Kevin Mulhall out of frustration for what he believed, was an early stoppage.

“Absolutely there has to be varying degrees of punishment, but it has to be a punishment that is, you know, it evenly matches the crime, and the crime was pretty minimal.”

“Jason put his hands on Kevin and kinda pushed him away. It was wrong. To be taken out of the UFC – I understand what Dana White is doing and I’m not saying, you know, Dana is, he’s slamming his foot down, going don’t do that, you’re embarrassing me, you’re embarrassing my promotion, you’re embarrassing the sport, I can’t have that. Now the question is, if Jon Jones would have done the same thing, would he have kicked Jon Jones out of the UFC? He wouldn’t have. Now I understand why, I’m not saying that he should, but Jason got punished in a harsh fashion. Now on top of, you know Dana removing him from the UFC, the New Mexico State Athletic commission has, you know suspended him for 1 year. That’s one year of time that he cannot make a living fighting. That’s a lot. You know, you’re having people take away your ability to make a living, based on one act”

“Sometimes we as human beings, we do things off of emotion that we normally wouldn’t do.” “Do I think he should have been punished? Yes. He should have had his hand slapped, he should have gotten, you know a five-month suspension, he should have been fined, we’ll say twenty-five hundred, five thousand dollars. That’s gonna hurt him, he’s gonna feel it, but I think that overall Jason got treated very harshly for what happened.”

What do you think PENNation? Was High’s punishment too harsh? Sound off in the comments section.