Tank Abbott is an icon in UFC. The California native was one of the earliest superstars of the sport and was instrumental in popularizing it back in its wild west Pre-Zuffa days in the ’90s when there were no rules, no weight classes, no rounds, no time limits, and no judges.

At this time, Abbott’s violent, no-nonsense, bar-brawler style of fighting combined with his wild persona made him a household name. Even after his retirement, however, it seems the former mixed martial artist has not lost much of his bellicosity, as he called out, of all people, ‘Big’ John McCarthy, one of the well-respected people in the sport. Abbott, of course, had called the MMA icon “corrupt” and a “crook” on Joe Rogan‘s podcast. To which the distinguished MMA referee has responded in kind, setting the record straight about the allegations.

John McCarthy clears the air on UFC 8 events regarding ‘Tank’

On Joe Rogan Experience: MMA Show #158 last week, Tank Abbott claimed that ‘Big’ John McCarthy had been biased against him, and actively disliked him. As an example of this, he claimed that the referee had him kicked out of a UFC event, and even claimed he often unfairly treated him in the octagon simply because the referee was a grappling guy and had little regard for strikers such as Abbott.

Asked about Abbott’s allegations, ‘Big John’ rubbished Abbott’s allegations, chalking them up to the UFC legend searching for excuses to justify their losses.

“It’s like, it’s obvious I live rent-free in Tank Abbott’s head. Like it’s a grand palatial palace, but it’s like, you know, I always look and say, hey, fighters want to find an excuse for something, okay go ahead find the excuse,” McCarthy told co-host Josh Thomson on their ‘Weighing In’ Podcast.

Further, the legendary referee spoke about Abbott being kicked out of a UFC event, allegedly because of him, but gave a very different account of it than the retired fighter. “I can tell you that there was one time I was pissed at him, you know, that was at UFC 8, and that was when he threatened my wife. But his entire story of how it happened is absolutely false, okay,” McCarthy thundered on his podcast.

McCarthy revealed that the night in question was UFC 8, back in 1996. The former police officer was scheduled to referee the card, and Abbott, who wasn’t fighting that night, was present backstage at the Puerto Rico card for the event as one of the promotion’s biggest stars.

According to ‘Big John’, a drunk Abbott, egged on by his girlfriend, got into a brawl with another UFC fighter, Allan Goes backstage at UFC 8. As the bout was going on, McCarthy’s wife walked up to Abbott’s girlfriend and started berating her for provoking the UFC star into attacking Allen. And what happened next, if true, paints Abbott in a very bad light and justifies him being kicked out.

McCarthy didn’t know Abbott had threatened his wife

As McCarthy’s wife was giving Abbott’s girl a stern talk, the latter called the fighter over. Incensed at his girlfriend being scolded, Abbott walked up to McCarthy’s wife and allegedly threatened to kill her, according to the veteran MMA referee.

“Tank gets that far from her face and basically says ‘I’ll f**ing kill you’, right, and scared the sh* out of my wife… He’s sweaty, and he’s filled with alcohol, and breathing alcohol into her face and he says he’s going to kill her… I go and I do the fights I had no idea it happened until after the show”

While the UFC’s first referee admitted that he didn’t have any idea this was going on, since he was in the octagon refereeing a fight, Abbott was kicked out of the event for these transgressions. This is in sharp contrast to Abbott’s claims, who had told Joe Rogan that he was kicked out simply because ‘Big John’ “does not like me” probably because the referee is a former cop and the fighter had a criminal history.

However, as we have seen, McCarthy has claimed that all of this happened since “Tank started a fight for no f**king reason” simply because the UFC legend “was drunk all the time.” What are your thoughts on the whole affair?