John McCarthy (mixed martial arts)

John Michael McCarthy, (born October 12, 1962 in Los Angeles, CA) the 'Octagon's ninth side', is the first head referee for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a retired Los Angeles Police Officer, and a Tactical Self-Defense Instructor at the Los Angeles Police Academy.

He formerly provided commentary and analysis for The Fight Network's coverage of UFC events. He also provided commentary for Affliction: Banned, the first MMA event co-produced by Affliction Clothing and Adrenaline MMA. He has served as head referee for hundreds of bouts in major MMA promotions dating back to 1993.^[1] He is also the founder of C.O.M.M.A.N.D., the training and certification school for MMA referees and judges.

 The nickname of 'Big John' came about because of his stature. He stands 6'4" and weighs 270 lb; making him larger than the majority of the athletes over whom he presides. According to a UFC interview, the nickname was given to him by UFC co-founder and promoter Art Davie. McCarthy recalls that the nickname began when he forcibly lifted Davie off the ground and held him in the air. John McCarthy is of Irish descent.
UFC
McCarthy was the most senior referee in the UFC and is well known for his delivery of "Let's Get It On!", a catchphrase created by boxing referee Mills Lane. McCarthy served as one of the head referees for nearly every fight in the UFC from UFC 2 until UFC 77, and was considered as much a part of the UFC as the octagonal arena itself. His 535th bout was the main event at The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra finale in Las Vegas, Roger Huerta vs. Clay Guida.

McCarthy briefly retired after this bout to pursue a career as a commentator for The Fight Network but returned to officiating just a year later. Since his return, McCarthy has refereed for promotions all over the globe including the UFC and Strikeforce.

His connection to the UFC was attributed to his relationship with the Gracie family, particularly Rorion Gracie. McCarthy had been training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Rorion at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, CA in the early 1990s, and was designated a certified "GRAPLE" (Gracie Resisting Attack Procedures for Law Enforcement) instructor by the Gracie Academy in December 1993.

When Rorion Gracie was putting together his new fighting promotion in 1993, McCarthy expressed interest in fighting for the UFC, but Gracie advised against it; however, due to his experience in law enforcement, McCarthy was seen as a fitting man to referee. He debuted at UFC 2: No Way Out in 1994.

The early days of UFC did not contain many rules; McCarthy's role was only to supervise the fight and to ensure that it ended promptly when a competitor either submitted (also known as tap out), was knocked out, or had his towel thrown in. Although first disfavored by UFC executives, after UFC 2 McCarthy insisted on referee stoppages when a fighter cannot intelligently defend himself.

On December 31, 2004, McCarthy served as the referee for a fight held on the K-1 Dynamite! card at the Osaka Dome in Osaka, Japan between MMA legend Royce Gracie and Sumo legend-turned-fighter Akebono Taro.
Personal life
In September 2006, John McCarthy opened his first MMA school in Valencia, CA. This 29,000-square-foot (2,700 m²) gym is one of the largest MMA schools in California. His dozen or so instructors teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, judo, and MMA. In January 2007, he was awarded his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. Currently, McCarthy lives in

Los Angeles with his wife Elaine and their three children: Ronald II (named after his grandfather), Britney and John Michael Junior (AKA "Little John").

In early 2008, McCarthy started a referee and judging course for MMA officials called COMMAND (Certification of Officials for Mixed Martial Arts National Development).
On September 1, 2011, McCarthy's autobiography titled "Let's Get It On - The Making of MMA and its Ultimate Referee" was released.

McCarthy appeared with retired MMA fighter Bas Rutten in New Found Glory's video "Listen To Your Friends", where he refs MMA fights between the band members. The music video, which was shot on November 5, 2008 in Los Angeles, California, premiered on March 9, 2009. He has also appeared on Fight Science "super cops" on national geographic.

McCarthy also appeared in the TV series "Friends", season 3 episode 24 "The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion" where he plays the referee of a UFC match between Tank Abbott and Jon Favreau.
McCarthy also serves as the referee on the MTV2 series Bully Beatdown, along with professional mixed martial artist Jason "Mayhem" Miller.

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Famous Failure of All Time

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PBA All Time Leader in Assists

 

PBA ALL TIME LEADER IN ASSISTS: (ACTIVE PLAYERS)

NO. 1 JIMMY ALAPAG              -- 2959 ASSISTS

NO. 2 WILLIE MILLER               -- 2294 ASSISTS
NO. 3 JAYJAY HELTERBRAND -- 1924 ASSISTS
NO. 4 ALEX CABAGNOT           --1816 ASSISTS
NO. 5 WYNNE ARBOLEDA       -- 1773 ASSISTS
NO. 6 MIKE CORTEZ                  -- 1764 ASSISTS
NO. 7 DANNY ILDEFONSO       -- 1598 ASSISTS
NO. 8 LA TENORIO                     -- 1454 ASSISTS
NO. 9 CYRUS BAGUIO               -- 1219 ASSISTS
NO. 10 MARK CAGUIOA            -- 1206 ASSISTS

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Michael Jordan The Legend

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials, MJ, is an American former professional basketball player, entrepreneur, and majority owner and chairman of the Charlotte Bobcats.

His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in

popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

After a three-season career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball at the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.

Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include five MVP awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, three All-Star Game MVP awards, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game). In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press's list of athletes of the century. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

Jordan is also known for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1985 and remain popular today. Jordan also starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam as himself. He is the majority owner and head of basketball operations for the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, having won a bidding war to buy controlling interest in the team from founding owner Robert L. Johnson.

            

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Bret " The Hitman" Hart

“I’m The Best There Is, Best There Was, and the Best There Ever Will Be!”

Bret “The Hitman” Hart is one of those wrestlers that you can love or hate, but you absolutely have to respect the man. While actions in his personal life are controversial, and his outspoken,

sometimes malicious nature have turned fans off, the reality of it is that Bret Hart is one of the true, great wrestlers.

Bret Hart began his career in Stampede wrestling. An amateur wrestling in high school, it was inevitable that Bret would become a professional wrestler, due to the legacy set by the infamous “Hart Family”. Bret would learn his trade in Stampede wrestling battling against a wide variety of talented wrestlers to improve his skills, including the Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask.

Bret joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1984, where he would remain for 13 whole years. Brets WWF career began with him tag-teaming with Jim Neidhart as the “Hart Foundation”. It would take almost three years but the Hart Foundation would go on to win the tag team titles, defeating the British Bulldogs in this match:

Bret was one of the only wrestlers to successfully juggle both a singles and tag team career at the same time, wrestling the likes of Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and the Macho Man Randy Savage.

It took until the early 1990s for Brets single career to really take off however, and it took off with a bang with Bret Hart winning the Intercontinental Title at Summerslam 91 beating Mr. Perfect. I remember this match fondly, because at that point I thought it was “impossible” for anyone to break out of the perfect-plex yet Bret did it, and managed to win the IC Title in the process.

In later years The Rock would refer to himself as the “Peoples Champion” but in reality Bret Hart was the true peoples champion. One of his trademark moves was to give his sunglasses to a kid at ringside when he came to the ring, and he also received the most fan mail out of all the wrestlers, even when he wasn’t in the main events.



Brets success would continue as he won the 1991 King of the Ring. His first real feud since becoming the intercontinental champion was an epic feud with The Mountie, losing the title in the process. He’d regain the title at Wrestlemania 9 against Roddy Piper, in a fantastic and very passionate match that had you glued to your set the entire time:

At Summerslam 1992, Bret would drop the title to Davey Boy Smith. This match was great at the time, however is one of those matches that only grow in stature when we later learned that Davey Boy Smith gassed literally 3 minutes into the match, yet Bret Hart managed to carry him to a 30 minute ***** match, which is generally accepted as the greatest Summerslam match ever:

Bret would soon after that win his first WWF Championship, beating Ric Flair and would go onto successfully defend the title against the likes of Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon and Ric Flair. Unfortunately he would lose the title to Yokozuna at Wrestlemania 9 and then bid farewell to the main event, as Hulk Hogan was back to take that over:

This would result in being a good thing however, as Bret Hart won the 1993 King of the Ring, then entered into a long feud with Jerry Lawler that would continue for years. The hatred between the two was evident and Jerry Lawler played the “weasel” role to perfection.

Bret would return to the title scene at Wrestlemania 10, losing his chance at regaining the title due to the “mistake” of Owen Hart. This disagreement between the two would grow throughout the year, with Owen getting more and more frustrated at Bret every turn. It all came to an intense climax at the 1994 Royal Rumble when in the tag team championship match between The Harts and The Quebecers, the match was stopped with Bret being declared too injured to continue. Owen would attack his knee, the heel turn complete.

Hart would go on to “win” the Royal Rumble with Lex Luger in the infamous finish:



Bret would regain the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania 10, while losing to Owen on the same show. The two would feud for a long time with Bret also feuding with Diesel, yet all the interest was in the Bret-Owen feud which would cost Bret his WWF Title against Bob Backlund at Survivor Series 1994.

In 1995-1996 Bret would participate in various feuds, fighting against the likes of Bob Backland, and many or Jerry Lawlers allies like Isaac Yankem DDS. He would also win his third WWF championship against Diesel at Survivor Series, and would have an epic iron man match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 12, losing in overtime.

Bret Hart took a break from wrestling, before returning to the main event scene and helping to elevate Stone Cold Steve Austin in late 1996. The two would go on to have one of the most famous matches of all time at Wrestlemania 13, where Bret Hart successfully completed his heel turn while Austin turned face:

Bret would hammer home his heel turn in the coming weeks, turning Anti-American and breathing new life into the Bret Hart character. Unfortunately this would all lead to a feud with the new Shawn Michaels stable D-Generation X, which would ultimately result in….yeah:

Bret Hart would go onto WCW where he would prove Vince McMahon correct. Vince had always said WCW wouldn’t know what to do with him and to say WCW fucked up would be a huge understatement. Perhaps only the “Invasion” angle was more badly booked than Bret Harts entire WCW run. I’m not even going to bother to recap his WCW run because it makes baby jesus cry. If there’s one thing you want to remember about Brets run, it was this:

The one time WCW got it right. And it was all Brets idea.

Brets wrestling career would come to a premature end when Goldberg nailed him with a kick to the head that would result in a concussion. Bret would continue to wrestle and most likely picked up some more concussions, one of those again due to the clumsiness of Goldberg. Bret suffered from post-concussion syndrome and was forced to retire. Bret would also suffer a stroke, and would go through various health problems over the years.

Thankfully, the end of Bret Harts career was not to be on a sour note. In 2009/2010 Bret Hart made his infamous return to the WWE, providing closure on the long drawn-out Montreal Screw Job story by making up with Shawn Michaels, and beating the shit out of Vince McMahon.

The Bret/Vince storyline would get a lot of criticism, and the match between the two was one of the worst booked matches ever, but none of that is important. What is important is that the storyline led to closure and peace of mind for Bret Hart. It took 13 years, but he was finally able to get revenge on Vince McMahon. In a nice final twist Bret Hart would return at the WWE Over The Limit PPV to assist Jerry Lawler, showing that their long-term animosities were now in the past.

Bret Hart was a wrestler who gave everything he had to the business. The business gave it all back and then some, and it says a lot about the character of Bret Hart that he’s been able to rise above everything, and end his wrestling career on a positive note.

Bret Hart Tribute

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Bataan Death March

The Bataan Death March (Tagalog: Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan, Japanese: Batān Shi no Kōshin (バターン死の行進?)) ja:バターン死の行進, which began on April 9, 1942, was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60-80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II.[3][4] All told, approximately 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 100-650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach their destination at Camp O'Donnell.[5][6] The reported death tolls vary, especially amongst Filipino POWs, because historians cannot determine how many prisoners blended in with the civilian population and escaped. The march went from Mariveles, Bataan, to San Fernando, Pampanga. From San Fernando, survivors were loaded to a box train and they were brought to Camp O'Donell in Capas, Tarlac.

The 128 km (80 mi) march was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon prisoners and civilians alike by the Japanese Army, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime.

The March of Death
Dead soldiers on the Bataan Death March.

The Japanese were unprepared for the number of prisoners that they were responsible for, and there was no organized plan for how to handle them. Prisoners were stripped of their weapons and valuables, and told to march to Balanga, the capital of Bataan. Many were beaten, bayoneted, and mistreated. The first major atrocity occurred when between 350 and 400 Filipino officers and NCOs were summarily executed after they had surrendered.

The Japanese failed to supply the prisoners with food or water until they had reached Balanga. Many of the prisoners died along the way of heat or exhaustion. Prisoners were given no food for the first three days, and were only allowed to drink water from filthy water buffalo wallows on the side of the road. Furthermore, Japanese troops would frequently beat and bayonet prisoners who began to fall behind, or were unable to walk. Once they arrived in Balanga, the overcrowded conditions and poor hygiene caused dysentery and other diseases to rapidly spread among the prisoners. The Japanese failed to provide them with medical care, leaving U.S. medical personnel to tend to the sick and wounded (with few or no supplies). In June 2001, U.S. Congressional Representative Dana Rohrabacher described and tried to explain the horrors and brutality that the prisoners experienced on the march:

They were beaten, and they were starved as they marched. Those who fell were bayoneted. Some of those who fell were beheaded by Japanese officers who were practicing with their samurai swords from horseback. The Japanese culture at that time reflected the view that any warrior who surrendered had no honor; thus was not to be treated like a human being. Thus they were not committing crimes against human beings.[...] The Japanese soldiers at that time [...] felt they were dealing with subhumans and animals.

Trucks were known to drive over some of those who fell or succumbed to fatigue,[9][10][11] and "cleanup crews" put to death those too weak to continue. Marchers were harassed with random bayonet stabs and beatings.

Prisoners on the march from Bataan to the prison camp, May 1942. (National Archives).

From San Fernando, the prisoners were transported by rail to Capas. One hundred or more prisoners were stuffed into each of the trains' boxcars, which were unventilated and sweltering in the tropical heat. The trains had no sanitation facilities, and disease continued to take a heavy toll of the prisoners. After they reached Capas, they were forced to walk the final 9 miles to Camp O'Donnell.[5] Even after arriving at Camp O'Donnell, the survivors of the march continued to die at a rate of 30–50 per day, leading to thousands more dead. Most of the dead were buried in mass graves that the Japanese dug out with bulldozers on the outside of the barbed wire surrounding the compound.

The death toll of the march is difficult to assess as thousands of captives were able to escape from their guards (although many were killed during their escapes), and it is not known how many died in the fighting that was taking place concurrently.

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