(How can you say no to that face?)
Aside from its placement atop nearly every MMA fan’s “Favorite Fights” list, Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin‘s war at the first TUF Finale is widely considered to be the fight responsible for popularizing MMA into the near mainstream sport it is today. Well, believe it or not, that fight almost didn’t happen on account of Bonnar’s uncontrollable desire for bottom shelf alcohol, specifically, Mad Dog. Although Bonnar has told this story with a slightly different spin before, Dana White recently discussed the craziness that was the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, and how Bonnar almost got himself kicked off the show:
The first season of the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ was the longest season we’ve ever done. It was something like 8 weeks and those guys were losing their (expletive) minds. I almost kicked (Stephan) Bonnar off the show.
Bonnar turned the shower on, climbed out the window and went to find a liquor store. Remember we took all the liquor out after that big fight? These idiots…we had been driving these guys around for six or seven weeks and the house is in the middle of nowhere. There was no liquor store near there. The guy was walking around for an hour and thirty minutes. So much crazy (expletive) happened that first season. Imagine if I had kicked off him off the show for going to a liquor store? Forrest (Griffin) and Stephan would have never happened.
No Dana, we would not like to imagine a world in which Griffin/Bonnar never existed. We’d rather imagine one in which Motley Crue serenades our lovemaking sessions with Adriana Lima, thank you very much.
Speaking of the Crue, does anyone get the feeling that Greg Jackson is Afraid to corner Jon Jones for his upcoming title defense against Team Jackson’s Bastard child, Rashad Evans? Because he sure seemed on the fence about it when questioned on the issue during an appearance on The Savage Dog Show:
I’m going back and forth now because I have to think about what it means to be on a team. Are we just a collection of friends that train together? For me, it’s much more than that. It means something to be on this team and it means something to have teammates. Rashad kind of left that. I don’t know, I’m leaning toward cornering Jon right now. Just because, am I selfish, am I going to make this about me? Or am I gonna make this about the team? I can’t be self-centered. Even though it’s something that I don’t want to do, it might end up that way.
I still consider him a friend. Right now he’s really angry, and he’s saying a lot of negative things. I don’t want much to do with that, so I’m just kind of keeping my distance, so that’s where we’re at.
So what you’re saying is that you didn’t want Evans to Go Away Mad, (but) Just Go Away? And speaking of non sequiturs…
…Eddie Alvarez recently spoke with MMAWeekly and explained why he chose a rematch with Shinya Aoki over the chance to recapture his Bellator lightweight strap by entering the season 6 tournament:
It makes no sense for me to rejoin a tournament and fight three guys that people don’t really care to see me fight rather than fight someone a Shinya Aoki, who is ranked in my weight class. I haven’t fought anyone ranked in my weight class in God knows how long. I’d be stupid not to take this fight. He’s ranked top five in my weight class, I believe, and it’ll get me back into the rankings. I’ll be able to forward positively.
Though it’s hard to blame Alvarez for this revelation, I, for one, would rather he fight for the chance of a possible rematch with Michael Chandler, considering how epic their first encounter was. Then again, watching Aoki butt scoot around Bellator’s rather gigantic cage for 15 minutes could prove to be entertaining in its own right.
An while we’re on the subject of rematches, it seems that one many people out there are already clamoring for is that of Condit/Diaz. And although we’ve said basically all that needs to be said about the fight itself, none other than UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie recently took to Twitter to weigh in on the controversial decision. Go figure, he was in Diaz’s corner:
@nickdiaz209 won that fight in my opinion. He is what every fighter should be a true martial artists who comes to fight. Well prepared and with a gameplan. Not one that [involves] running from a fight. Why come to fight if you gonna run? Hackney was running when we fought and I had to take the fight to him, Shamrock showed up not to lose in our rematch it’s a shame really. I for one am proud of Nick and happy he is part of Grace Jiu-jitsu family.
Well, we can go ahead and discredit anything Gracie says from this day forward, because you would have to be insane to believe that Keith Hackney would run from anybody…ever. He was not running from you, Mr. Gracie, he was simply luring you in using a level of mental warfare that you have not even begun to understand. You think you won that fight, simply because Keith allowed you to put him in an armlock? Please, this man defeated both a serial killer and a killer whale in hand to hand combat, and simply threw the fight for the good of the sport. You should be thanking him.
-J. Jones