Every time that Paulo “Borrachinha” Henrique Costa has stepped in the cage, he has decimated an opponent. The middleweight has done it any number of ways. The maulings have come via head kick, ground-and-pound, right cross, left hook, combination barra…
Every time that Paulo “Borrachinha” Henrique Costa has stepped in the cage, he has decimated an opponent. The middleweight has done it any number of ways. The maulings have come via head kick, ground-and-pound, right cross, left hook, combination barrage and the kitchen sink. They’ve come in small regional promotions and followed him into the UFC. And they’ve all come in a single round or less.
In nine fights, Costa, who professionally goes by Borrachinha, has never had to fight more than five minutes. His shortest outing was just 32 seconds, and in his UFC debut just less than three months ago, he needed just 77 ticks of the clock to pummel Garreth McLellan into an early evening.
For his 10th fight, he’s been anointed. The UFC has placed him on the main card of this Saturday’s UFC 212, where he’ll take on Oluwale Bamgbose. The placement of Borrachinha smack in the middle of the card is no accident. The UFC has always taken fight order seriously, and it is rare to see someone in his second fight with the promotion on the main card of a pay-per-view. After all, to most of those watching, including the hardcore MMA fans, Borrachinha is a nobody. But the UFC hopes that by about 11 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, his name will be trending in Brazil and abroad.
The home market is the key one. Since the UFC formally re-entered the Brazilian sports scene in 2011, it has been one of the most important stops on their never-ending world tour. In 2012, the UFC set up its Octagon in Brazil three times. In 2013 and 2014, they visited seven times each, raking in millions.
But since then, it’s been a steady decline. In 2015, they came five times, and in 2016, the number dipped to three. This year, unless something changes, they’re only scheduled to visit the South American nation twice.
That’s no accident.
Part of the falloff stems from Brazil’s economy, which went from supercharged to struggling right around 2013. But part of it is due to the nation’s fading star power in MMA.
Anderson Silva is still around and still wildly popular, but he’s now 42 years old. He’s also stumbled continuously since losing the middleweight title, capped off by a failed a drug test in 2015. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira retired. Shogun Rua and Lyoto Machida have struggled. Even Vitor Belfort, who’s had one of the longest, strangest careers in UFC history, has openly discussed retirement.
Other fighters like Erick Silva and Renan Barao, who at one time seemed destined to replace them as perennial headliners, have also fallen on hard times.
Brazil could really use some new draws, and Borrachinha will get the opportunity to vault himself up the pecking order in a hurry on Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro.
What does the UFC see in him? Besides his sterling record, he is an action fighter, forging a style that nearly promises a series of car crashes until only one person remains standing. He’s young (he just turned 26 years old), resembles a bronze statue, and rumor has it he speaks passable English.
These are all things that matter during a time when the UFC is owned by an entertainment giant that prizes the show on par with the sport, if not above it.
Borrachinha thus far has only had one blip in his MMA career, coming during his time on The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3. He earned a spot in the house despite having only three pro fights at the time and, in his first bout, faced Marcio Alexandre Jr., who was far more experienced at 11-0. Alexandre weathered Borrachinha’s first-round storm and bounced back to take a split-decision win. (The fight does not count on either man’s official record since it’s classified as an exhibition.)
In that setback, Borrachinha’s mistakes were those of an unseasoned fighter. He expended too much energy wildly going for a first-round finish and was completely out of gas by the third and deciding round. Still, it said a lot for his potential to fight so competitively with a far more experienced foe.
Since then, he’s made changes to his preparation, most notably moving his training camp to put himself under the tutelage of the Nogueira brothers.
His perfect record has not come against cupcakes. His nine opponents had a combined record of 49-18 before facing him, and one of them, Wagner Silva Gomes, was a UFC veteran. In that fight, which came after Borrachinha’s TUF experience, he scored a knockout in just four minutes, 37 seconds. In all, his fights average just 2:30.
All of this portends well for his future, but there is also no pretending he doesn’t have plenty to prove. Can he more wisely allocate his energy? How will he fare against the division’s strong wrestlers? Is he just another in a long list of MMA one-round wonders who fades after five minutes?
All of these are questions that will be answered in due time.
For now, and for at least until Saturday night, his future is tinged with excitement and the hope that in him, the UFC has found a new Brazilian star.
Demetrious Johnson stands on the cusp of an all-time UFC record. One more successful title defense would make for 11 straight, sending him past the great Anderson Silva for the most ever by a UFC champion.
For various reasons, much of this reign has pa…
Demetrious Johnson stands on the cusp of an all-time UFC record. One more successful title defense would make for 11 straight, sending him past the great Anderson Silva for the most ever by a UFC champion.
For various reasons, much of this reign has passed by quietly, as Johnson has been overshadowed by bigger-name champions like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. But for his record-breaker, the UFC is interested in giving Johnson a matchup that has the most possibility of moving the needle. The promotion has floated out the possibility of Johnson vs. T.J. Dillashaw, the former UFC bantamweight champ who says he’s capable of making the 125-pound flyweight limit.
The prospect of that match has been the cause of much debate, with supporters stating it’s a more meaningful matchup for Johnson’s legacy and detractors asking how such a pairing makes any logical sense.
Joining me to discuss it is my colleague Steven Rondina. So let’s kick this off with a simple question: Steven, are you for or against it?
Steven: I consider myself pretty darn open-minded when it comes to what goes on in MMA.
Conor McGregor taking his two titles into a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather? I’m in. Georges St-Pierre returning after a four-year layoff to make his middleweight debut in a title match against Michael Bisping? Sounds good to me. CM Punk signing with the UFC? Why not?
But over the last week or so, there’s been a topic swirling on social media that even strikes me as a silly one. I’m talking, of course, about the discussion of Johnson vs. Dillashaw.
For whatever reason, fans and pundits alike have latched onto this as some kind of must-see, once-in-a-lifetime dream match. Heck, I’ve even seen posts labeling this as a “superfight” and, even more hilariously, a “money fight.”
Is this an interesting contest? Sure. Is this the most interesting fight available to Johnson at this particular time? Probably. But is this so compelling that the UFC should disrupt the stability of not one but two of the remaining stable divisions for it? Hell, no.
So I ask you, Mike! Is this fight better than what I’m seeing? Or am I overvaluing the potential costs for this?
Mike: Is this fight better than what you’re seeing? Of course it is! While I’m not going to go out on a limb and suggest that it is a superfight or a money fight, Johnson vs. Dillashaw is the best fight the UFC can make for the longtime reigning flyweight champion. To me, that’s reason enough to make it.
Johnson vs. Ray Borg? Eh. No disrespect to Borg, who at 23 years old is still a developing talent, but a two-fight win streak is not exactly an unassailable championship-level resume. He’s beaten Jussier Formiga and Louis Smolka, and those are good, solid wins, but they’re not jaw-droppers. Joseph Benavidez has a much better case for a title shot after winning six in a row, but having already lost twice to Johnson, he’s in a bad sort of limbo. He’s also out injured after tearing his ACL.
If Benavidez is not getting the shot, I don’t see how a Johnson vs. Dillashaw match would disrupt either division. Since capturing the belt in 2013, Johnson has defended it 10 times in just over four years. He’s very active, so even if there was a rock-solid contender, they’d only have to wait a little while longer than normal. Similarly, at bantamweight, Dillashaw is stuck waiting on injured champion Cody Garbrandt, so why should he sit around and wait if something else is lined up? The Garbrandt-Dillashaw matchup is already delayed, and it will be available down the line as well. And so, what’s the harm?
To me the more interesting thing here is how the UFC handles the situation. Johnson has publicly made it known that he’s resisting the Dillashaw matchup. To me, this is quite obviously a negotiation tactic. He’s voiced his displeasure with his pay in the past, and I’m sure he feels that if he’s going to take a riskier fight against a bigger name—and in theory, one that would draw more eyeballs—he deserves a bigger payday. Is the UFC likely to play ball here? This is where we find out how much they want it, and how much they think it’s worth.
Let me make this clear: Aside from a Johnson vs. Garbrandt matchup, this is the only pairing on the horizon that has even the remote chance of selling on pay-per-view. Dillashaw isn’t some box-office draw, but he’s a known name, a former UFC champion, and he is coming off the exposure of The Ultimate Fighter. If he’s ever going to draw, this is it. If Johnson is ever going to draw, the time is now.
Is this a good enough reason, Steven, or are you going to stick to your guns?
Steven: I completely agree that this is the best, most interesting fight that can be made for DJ from a fan perspective. But I’ll flip the script on you. Is this the best fight for DJ himself? Absolutely not.
While the UFC hasn’t really discussed it or acknowledged it, DJ currently shares the record for most title defenses in UFC history with Anderson Silva. He has a strong chance to break it but, well, he might not get the opportunity if his opponent comes in heavy, which is a lot more likely than people care to admit with a Dillashaw that has never weighed anything close to 125 pounds in his adult life. Frankly, I take a look at the photos of him at weigh-ins and I don’t even know where he could find 10 more pounds to lose!
That might be worth the risk if Dillashaw actually brought something extra to the table, either from a legacy or financial perspective, but he doesn’t. Whether he beats Dillashaw or that 12-year-old girl we’ve all been talking about, we’ll still be labeling DJ as the GOAT on Saturday, lamenting the UFC’s unwillingness to promote him on Sunday, then shaking our heads at his low-six-figure paycheck on Monday.
Oh, and if DJ loses? Are we really not expecting Dillashaw to immediately go back to 135 pounds and cash in his title fight raincheck?
On that note, I’ll flip the script on you again and ask: Is this the best fight that can be made for TJ? Again, absolutely not.
Dillashaw’s fight with Garbrandt was one of the best fights of the summer. It had everything you could want from an X’s and O’s perspective and when you add in the real, true, legitimate, honest-to-goodness hatred between the two of them? It’s everything you could want from a UFC fight.
It got pulled from UFC 213, yes, but unless Dana White was hugely underselling the severity of Garbrandt’s injury when he talked to the LA Times, we can expect that fight this fall. I’m willing to wait for that instead of rolling the dice on Dillashaw making 125 pounds—and then rolling them again to see if he actually looks good at that weight.
Mike: If you flip the script twice, wouldn’t you be exactly where we began? But I digress. Back to the argument at hand, let’s begin with your second argument. Is this the best fight to be made for Dillashaw? I’d argue yes. For proof, you just have to ask him. He wants the fight. If he really felt there was so much more to be made by fighting Garbrandt, he’d probably wait. Is he making more money for fighting Garbrandt? Nope, and unlike Johnson, he doesn’t have the leverage to ask for more. If this is all true, what is the point of waiting? If he feels he can make the flyweight 125-pound limit and he’s still competing for a championship, I don’t see the downside for him.
The UFC? Yes, I don’t get it from their point of view. In fact, after spending several weeks pushing this matchup through The Ultimate Fighter, it’s downright ridiculous that they’re not willing to wait. But maybe Garbrandt’s injury is worse than they’re letting on. Back injuries don’t usually go away quietly. If you want to argue the wiseness of the matchup from the promotion’s side, I think you have a case there. But Dillashaw isn’t losing much by shifting from Garbrandt to Johnson.
And Johnson? While it’s true that Dillashaw represents a riskier matchup than Borg, it is also true that it is the best fight for Johnson in terms of further cementing his legacy. A win over Borg will get him that record 11th title defense, but won’t it mean more to break the record against the first former UFC champion he’s ever faced—and against a bigger opponent to boot?
You mentioned that this might be worth the risk if Dillashaw brought something to the table from a financial perspective, and I agree this should be part of the considerations for Johnson. I believe he’s made his stance clear in recent interviews that he’s looking to increase his compensation. He should play hardball. As Dana White has been fond of saying for years, fighters only have a small window to capitalize upon. Johnson is attempting to make history, and while he’s never been a superstar, he’s earned the right to chart his own path. Whether he wants Borg, Dillashaw or a raise, the least the UFC can do is hear him out.
In the end, I acknowledge that neither fight will set the box office afire. That said, Johnson-Dillashaw is the best fight we can make for either man at the moment. It’s a great matchup of speed and movement that’s sure to result in a blur of action. All we’re missing is a storyline, but not every pairing needs that kind of drama. If they want it, and if the money’s right for both, let’s give them what they want.
Steven:Is Dillashaw the riskier fight for Johnson? Does he fill some void in Johnson’s legacy? A strong “no” case can be made in response to both of those questions.
I’d strongly encourage anyone that hasn’t seen it to take a look at Borg’s last two fights. Formiga is a very, very good fighter and Borg beat him squeaky clean in Brazil. Before that he basically dominated a solid Smolka.
I don’t think this is a Johnson vs. Kyoji Horiguchi situation, in which Horiguchi was an incredibly promising prospect who was obviously not ready for the Mighty Mouse challenge. Borg is good enough, right now, that I’m not sure the dried-up husk of Dillashaw is a greater threat.
And what about after Borg? Sergio Pettis and Brandon Moreno have both made major leaps in their games over recent months and the winner of their fight in August should be an interesting challenger if Johnson gets through Borg. And after that? Joseph Benavidez should be ready to go. Those are all interesting fights.
As for Johnson’s legacy, I think it’s bulletproof as it is right now. Whether it’s Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva or even the assassin of former champions, Jon Jones, we’re yet to have an all-time great not get derided for his strength of competition.
Five years from now, Mighty Mouse will be in the exact same boat whether he faces Dillashaw or not, and just like with all the other greats, those criticisms will be foolish.
Sure, some of Johnson’s wins came over Chris Cariaso and John Moraga. But one of them came when he slept Joseph Benavidez with one punch. One of them came when he iced Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo. Oh, and guess what? Two of them came when he beat John Dodson, that guy who punched Dillashaw into space.
Dillashaw certainly isn’t a bad name to have on his resume, but he also isn’t the Cris Cyborg to Johnson’s Ronda Rousey.
I’m all for Johnson playing his hand to get maximum moolah, and he deserves to hang up his gloves with millions of dollars in the bank. But a fight with Dillashaw isn’t going to do that, and it isn’t compelling enough to make me forget all the great fights that this potentially takes off the table.
Mike: I think your last point should serve as the last word. Johnson does deserve to retire set for life. He’s one of the best that’s ever done it, and he’s earned the right to call his shot as he best sees fit. If Dillashaw nets him more money and he thinks it’s worth it, Johnson doesn’t owe anyone an apology for moving in that direction. If the UFC doesn’t budge on compensation and Johnson doesn’t think facing a former champion is worth the risk, he should stand pat.
All things being equal, however, a win over Dillashaw is simply more meaningful, even if it’s not make-or-break for his legacy.
However things play out, Johnson already has a share of the record, and that’s no small thing. The flyweight division may be the one that receives the least amount of attention, but its champion is about the best thing going in MMA. Whether he ultimately fights Borg, Dillashaw or someone else, we should all be able to agree on that.
Demetrious Johnson stands on the cusp of an all-time UFC record. One more successful title defense would make for 11 straight, sending him past the great Anderson Silva for the most ever by a UFC champion.
For various reasons, much of this reign has pa…
Demetrious Johnson stands on the cusp of an all-time UFC record. One more successful title defense would make for 11 straight, sending him past the great Anderson Silva for the most ever by a UFC champion.
For various reasons, much of this reign has passed by quietly, as Johnson has been overshadowed by bigger-name champions like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. But for his record-breaker, the UFC is interested in giving Johnson a matchup that has the most possibility of moving the needle. The promotion has floated out the possibility of Johnson vs. T.J. Dillashaw, the former UFC bantamweight champ who says he’s capable of making the 125-pound flyweight limit.
The prospect of that match has been the cause of much debate, with supporters stating it’s a more meaningful matchup for Johnson’s legacy and detractors asking how such a pairing makes any logical sense.
Joining me to discuss it is my colleague Steven Rondina. So let’s kick this off with a simple question: Steven, are you for or against it?
Steven: I consider myself pretty darn open-minded when it comes to what goes on in MMA.
Conor McGregor taking his two titles into a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather? I’m in. Georges St-Pierre returning after a four-year layoff to make his middleweight debut in a title match against Michael Bisping? Sounds good to me. CM Punk signing with the UFC? Why not?
But over the last week or so, there’s been a topic swirling on social media that even strikes me as a silly one. I’m talking, of course, about the discussion of Johnson vs. Dillashaw.
For whatever reason, fans and pundits alike have latched onto this as some kind of must-see, once-in-a-lifetime dream match. Heck, I’ve even seen posts labeling this as a “superfight” and, even more hilariously, a “money fight.”
Is this an interesting contest? Sure. Is this the most interesting fight available to Johnson at this particular time? Probably. But is this so compelling that the UFC should disrupt the stability of not one but two of the remaining stable divisions for it? Hell, no.
So I ask you, Mike! Is this fight better than what I’m seeing? Or am I overvaluing the potential costs for this?
Mike: Is this fight better than what you’re seeing? Of course it is! While I’m not going to go out on a limb and suggest that it is a superfight or a money fight, Johnson vs. Dillashaw is the best fight the UFC can make for the longtime reigning flyweight champion. To me, that’s reason enough to make it.
Johnson vs. Ray Borg? Eh. No disrespect to Borg, who at 23 years old is still a developing talent, but a two-fight win streak is not exactly an unassailable championship-level resume. He’s beaten Jussier Formiga and Louis Smolka, and those are good, solid wins, but they’re not jaw-droppers. Joseph Benavidez has a much better case for a title shot after winning six in a row, but having already lost twice to Johnson, he’s in a bad sort of limbo. He’s also out injured after tearing his ACL.
If Benavidez is not getting the shot, I don’t see how a Johnson vs. Dillashaw match would disrupt either division. Since capturing the belt in 2013, Johnson has defended it 10 times in just over four years. He’s very active, so even if there was a rock-solid contender, they’d only have to wait a little while longer than normal. Similarly, at bantamweight, Dillashaw is stuck waiting on injured champion Cody Garbrandt, so why should he sit around and wait if something else is lined up? The Garbrandt-Dillashaw matchup is already delayed, and it will be available down the line as well. And so, what’s the harm?
To me the more interesting thing here is how the UFC handles the situation. Johnson has publicly made it known that he’s resisting the Dillashaw matchup. To me, this is quite obviously a negotiation tactic. He’s voiced his displeasure with his pay in the past, and I’m sure he feels that if he’s going to take a riskier fight against a bigger name—and in theory, one that would draw more eyeballs—he deserves a bigger payday. Is the UFC likely to play ball here? This is where we find out how much they want it, and how much they think it’s worth.
Let me make this clear: Aside from a Johnson vs. Garbrandt matchup, this is the only pairing on the horizon that has even the remote chance of selling on pay-per-view. Dillashaw isn’t some box-office draw, but he’s a known name, a former UFC champion, and he is coming off the exposure of The Ultimate Fighter. If he’s ever going to draw, this is it. If Johnson is ever going to draw, the time is now.
Is this a good enough reason, Steven, or are you going to stick to your guns?
Steven: I completely agree that this is the best, most interesting fight that can be made for DJ from a fan perspective. But I’ll flip the script on you. Is this the best fight for DJ himself? Absolutely not.
While the UFC hasn’t really discussed it or acknowledged it, DJ currently shares the record for most title defenses in UFC history with Anderson Silva. He has a strong chance to break it but, well, he might not get the opportunity if his opponent comes in heavy, which is a lot more likely than people care to admit with a Dillashaw that has never weighed anything close to 125 pounds in his adult life. Frankly, I take a look at the photos of him at weigh-ins and I don’t even know where he could find 10 more pounds to lose!
That might be worth the risk if Dillashaw actually brought something extra to the table, either from a legacy or financial perspective, but he doesn’t. Whether he beats Dillashaw or that 12-year-old girl we’ve all been talking about, we’ll still be labeling DJ as the GOAT on Saturday, lamenting the UFC’s unwillingness to promote him on Sunday, then shaking our heads at his low-six-figure paycheck on Monday.
Oh, and if DJ loses? Are we really not expecting Dillashaw to immediately go back to 135 pounds and cash in his title fight raincheck?
On that note, I’ll flip the script on you again and ask: Is this the best fight that can be made for TJ? Again, absolutely not.
Dillashaw’s fight with Garbrandt was one of the best fights of the summer. It had everything you could want from an X’s and O’s perspective and when you add in the real, true, legitimate, honest-to-goodness hatred between the two of them? It’s everything you could want from a UFC fight.
It got pulled from UFC 213, yes, but unless Dana White was hugely underselling the severity of Garbrandt’s injury when he talked to the LA Times, we can expect that fight this fall. I’m willing to wait for that instead of rolling the dice on Dillashaw making 125 pounds—and then rolling them again to see if he actually looks good at that weight.
Mike: If you flip the script twice, wouldn’t you be exactly where we began? But I digress. Back to the argument at hand, let’s begin with your second argument. Is this the best fight to be made for Dillashaw? I’d argue yes. For proof, you just have to ask him. He wants the fight. If he really felt there was so much more to be made by fighting Garbrandt, he’d probably wait. Is he making more money for fighting Garbrandt? Nope, and unlike Johnson, he doesn’t have the leverage to ask for more. If this is all true, what is the point of waiting? If he feels he can make the flyweight 125-pound limit and he’s still competing for a championship, I don’t see the downside for him.
The UFC? Yes, I don’t get it from their point of view. In fact, after spending several weeks pushing this matchup through The Ultimate Fighter, it’s downright ridiculous that they’re not willing to wait. But maybe Garbrandt’s injury is worse than they’re letting on. Back injuries don’t usually go away quietly. If you want to argue the wiseness of the matchup from the promotion’s side, I think you have a case there. But Dillashaw isn’t losing much by shifting from Garbrandt to Johnson.
And Johnson? While it’s true that Dillashaw represents a riskier matchup than Borg, it is also true that it is the best fight for Johnson in terms of further cementing his legacy. A win over Borg will get him that record 11th title defense, but won’t it mean more to break the record against the first former UFC champion he’s ever faced—and against a bigger opponent to boot?
You mentioned that this might be worth the risk if Dillashaw brought something to the table from a financial perspective, and I agree this should be part of the considerations for Johnson. I believe he’s made his stance clear in recent interviews that he’s looking to increase his compensation. He should play hardball. As Dana White has been fond of saying for years, fighters only have a small window to capitalize upon. Johnson is attempting to make history, and while he’s never been a superstar, he’s earned the right to chart his own path. Whether he wants Borg, Dillashaw or a raise, the least the UFC can do is hear him out.
In the end, I acknowledge that neither fight will set the box office afire. That said, Johnson-Dillashaw is the best fight we can make for either man at the moment. It’s a great matchup of speed and movement that’s sure to result in a blur of action. All we’re missing is a storyline, but not every pairing needs that kind of drama. If they want it, and if the money’s right for both, let’s give them what they want.
Steven:Is Dillashaw the riskier fight for Johnson? Does he fill some void in Johnson’s legacy? A strong “no” case can be made in response to both of those questions.
I’d strongly encourage anyone that hasn’t seen it to take a look at Borg’s last two fights. Formiga is a very, very good fighter and Borg beat him squeaky clean in Brazil. Before that he basically dominated a solid Smolka.
I don’t think this is a Johnson vs. Kyoji Horiguchi situation, in which Horiguchi was an incredibly promising prospect who was obviously not ready for the Mighty Mouse challenge. Borg is good enough, right now, that I’m not sure the dried-up husk of Dillashaw is a greater threat.
And what about after Borg? Sergio Pettis and Brandon Moreno have both made major leaps in their games over recent months and the winner of their fight in August should be an interesting challenger if Johnson gets through Borg. And after that? Joseph Benavidez should be ready to go. Those are all interesting fights.
As for Johnson’s legacy, I think it’s bulletproof as it is right now. Whether it’s Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva or even the assassin of former champions, Jon Jones, we’re yet to have an all-time great not get derided for his strength of competition.
Five years from now, Mighty Mouse will be in the exact same boat whether he faces Dillashaw or not, and just like with all the other greats, those criticisms will be foolish.
Sure, some of Johnson’s wins came over Chris Cariaso and John Moraga. But one of them came when he slept Joseph Benavidez with one punch. One of them came when he iced Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo. Oh, and guess what? Two of them came when he beat John Dodson, that guy who punched Dillashaw into space.
Dillashaw certainly isn’t a bad name to have on his resume, but he also isn’t the Cris Cyborg to Johnson’s Ronda Rousey.
I’m all for Johnson playing his hand to get maximum moolah, and he deserves to hang up his gloves with millions of dollars in the bank. But a fight with Dillashaw isn’t going to do that, and it isn’t compelling enough to make me forget all the great fights that this potentially takes off the table.
Mike: I think your last point should serve as the last word. Johnson does deserve to retire set for life. He’s one of the best that’s ever done it, and he’s earned the right to call his shot as he best sees fit. If Dillashaw nets him more money and he thinks it’s worth it, Johnson doesn’t owe anyone an apology for moving in that direction. If the UFC doesn’t budge on compensation and Johnson doesn’t think facing a former champion is worth the risk, he should stand pat.
All things being equal, however, a win over Dillashaw is simply more meaningful, even if it’s not make-or-break for his legacy.
However things play out, Johnson already has a share of the record, and that’s no small thing. The flyweight division may be the one that receives the least amount of attention, but its champion is about the best thing going in MMA. Whether he ultimately fights Borg, Dillashaw or someone else, we should all be able to agree on that.
On Monday night, UFC president Dana White and his promotion’s lightweight champion Conor McGregor announced that they’d struck a deal on the sharing of their side of a fight purse generated by a boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather. Normally, …
On Monday night, UFC president Dana White and his promotion’s lightweight champion Conor McGregor announced that they’d struck a deal on the sharing of their side of a fight purse generated by a boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather. Normally, that would be the easy part of any negotiation—after all, McGregor is under contract with the UFC—but the stakes involved and the co-promotion ensured it was not easy.
The match promises to be one of the richest in combat sports history, and confident in that knowledge and his role in such a mega-event, McGregor played hardball with the UFC, sidelining himself for several months with the understanding that the UFC needed his services as a cash-generator.
It worked, and in doing so, he has changed the game.
With Monday’s announcement, he has accomplished the seemingly impossible by getting UFC brass to co-promote a bout with another entity, something that Randy Couture and others tried several times over the years with no success.
Whether McGregor gets the fight now—still no sure thing with a hard negotiation with The Money Team looming—he’s already fundamentally altered the fighter/promoter dynamic to bend in his direction. He’s also become the most powerful fighter MMA has seen.
Should both sides reach terms, a fight with Mayweather will only increase McGregor’s stardom, leverage and strength.
Joining me to discuss this ongoing saga and developing story is Bleacher Report Lead MMA Writer Chad Dundas.
Mike Chiapppetta: Chad, it’s starting to actually seem like we might be seeing this. This crazy long shot of a co-promotion. This bizarre spectacle of capitalism. This circus of the century.
I will admit to being one who had extreme doubtsabout the ability of all parties involved to pull this off. I thought egos and purse splits would get in the way. And I have to also admit that I thought getting Dana White & Co. to sign off on it would be the harder negotiation of the two.
With that out of the way, there is a real path to this fight happening.
Let’s be honest. There is no other way Mayweather can make this kind of money again. He’s 40 years old and he’s been out of the game for nearly two years. His last fight, against Andre Berto, sold about a half-million pay-per-views, according to ESPN.com.
But we’re less interested in Mayweather than we are in McGregor, only because of what this will mean going forward, both for him and for the UFC.
In its efforts at a cash-grab, the UFC might have ceded power that it can never recover. The promotion has always emphasized the brand first, so what happens when McGregor goes outside the brand, outside the sport and draws a bigger audience than anything the UFC has ever produced?
What happens when he proves that at least right now, he is bigger than the brand? Because that’s what he’s on the way to doing.
Will he be content to go back to the UFC and live within their current arrangement? Remember, this is a man who has openly and repeatedly spoken of co-promoting with the UFC, and pretty soon, he may be doing just that. Pretty soon, he may come to the realization that he doesn’t need them at all, that he—like Mayweather—can do his own thing and collect the lion’s share of the cash haul he creates.
I don’t even think it matters whether he wins or loses. The vast majority of the combat sports world takes it as a given that he will lose, yet we want to see it anyway. Why? Because of the star power and spectacle. And that’s not something that will dim now, not this early in his career.
Which makes me wonder: Is the UFC making a mistake by bucking its own system here? For years, it has resisted this very thing for a reason. Chad, do you think this will have reverberations past McGregor and through the roster, or is this just one hell of a headache it’ll have on its hands for as long as McGregor remains signed with the UFC?
Chad Dundas: It’s a marvel, Mike, to consider what McGregor has pulled off here. He’s singlehandedly convinced the UFC to throw away more than 15 years of complete autonomy—once arguably its cardinal value—to secure this fight. Even if Mayweather and his Money Team never agree to terms, McGregor has already triumphed in yet another big battle against his own fight company bosses.
And this one is a doozy.
If he can get the UFC to agree to let him compete outside the Octagon, in a boxing ring, in a fight he will surely lose, he can get it to agree to anything.
It’s remarkable when you consider that for the last decade and a half, White and former UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta ruled the MMA world with such utter impunity. Their near-monopoly over the industry and iron-fisted management style succeeded in keeping nearly the entire roster of fighters in check for much of this sport’s modern history.
Then McGregor came along and smashed that mold beyond all recognition.
That’s a credit to him and him alone. I’m not sure any other MMA fighter will ever have the savvy, skills and hutzpah to take the UFC to the negotiating woodshed so regularly. So, in that way, I think McGegor is an entirely isolated example.
I do think, however, that UFC fighters will try to emulate him, to varying degrees of success. In the last few years, we’ve already started to see more and more fighterstake their grievances with the company public. We’re also nearly continuously hearing rumblings about unionization, though so far those efforts have been miserable failures.
McGregor merely adds fuel to that fire. While I’m not sure his continued victories over the UFC mean a full-scale rebellion is coming, I do think the days of the fight company being able to move unchecked over an entirely servile population of athletes are coming to and end.
And I think McGregor deserves some credit for playing a role in that shift.
Drifting so close to actually getting the Mayweather fight signed is another reminder that since he arrived in the UFC in 2013, McGregor has been making good on impossible promises. Each time the so-called experts laugh at his plans or shrug him off, he goes out and makes us all look like fools.
So, Mike, at the risk of looking foolish once more, if McGregor lands this fight, how on earth could he top it? Could he return to the UFC as a mere fighter again? Or might we see the rise of McGregor Promotions, another of McGregor’s wild ideas that at first drew laughs but might ultimately turn out to be more legitimate than anyone would’ve thought?
Chiappetta: How can he top it? This is the multi-million dollar question, isn’t it? Because all of what we’ve seen over the four years since McGregor showed up in the Octagon hasn’t been some accident or fate. He’s legitimately called every shot he’s taken, then gone out and accomplished it.
He said he’d win the lightweight belt, that he’d become a two-weight world champion, that he’d become MMA’s highest-paid draw. All of those things have come true, but only by way of his hard work, self-promotion skills and political maneuverings.
And as you mentioned, he’s also talked about launching McGregor Promotions. At this point, why would we doubt him? Anyone who doesn’t believe he’s going to work his damnedest to follow through on his declaration hasn’t been paying attention.
McGregor Promotions is coming. He’s already told us his end game, and that’s why I think UFC is playing with fire by agreeing to his demands. Don’t get be wrong, I’m glad they did. This is prizefighting, and I think athletes should be able to chase the fights that pay them the most money, even if those fights aren’t the most meaningful in a sporting sense.
We should all tip our caps to UFC for giving ground. I wouldn’t say this makes them any more fighter-friendly, but it’s a single big step in that direction, albeit in an exceptional circumstance.
Yet, you have to wonder if this is McGregor continuing the, “You give an inch, I’ll take a mile” approach to control his career and future. And if it is, good for him.
For the longest time, fighters who gave pieces of their lives in the Octagon only to ask for a favor in return, have been shot down. Randy Couture desperately wanted to fight Fedor Emelianenko. Anderson Silva wanted to box Roy Jones. For crying out loud, Georges St-Pierre was lambasted by White just because he decided he needed time away from the sport. And these are guys who have actually made the UFC real money.
McGregor? He ain’t going out like that. He’s going to call his shots and follow through, and White is going to have to deal with him, not the other way around. I love it. Sure, this whole thing will probably end up in some lawsuit-filled debacle, but this is MMA, and chaos is part of the product.
So let’s take this all the way to the conclusion, Chad. Let’s say McGregor and Mayweather reach a deal. They fight. McGregor makes an eight-figure payday. He leaves the ring with a whole new perspective on life. What happens next? Where is his first post-Mayweather fight? The UFC? His own cage? The courtroom?
Chad: It depends on a litany of factors, Mike.
Firstly, McGregor’s goal in any fight against Mayweather should be to just not get embarrassed so badly that it ends up dampening his star power. The last thing he wants is to wind up like Ronda Rousey, the sudden butt of a million internet memes.
But if McGregor plays this correctly—and so far he’s played almost everything correctly—I think he’ll be treated as a conquering hero for taking the Mayweather bout. He’ll ace the promotional lead-up to the fight and, let’s be honest, the boxing and mainstream media will line up to guzzle down the Conor McGregor Show like sweet, sweet nectar.
The media will laud him for having the guts to cross the aisle and take on one of the greatest boxers of the modern era and fight fans will understand that he’s not competing at his natural sport. So long as he avoids getting completely smashed and then handles the loss with the same dignity he showed after Nate Diaz beat him at UFC 196, he’ll waltz in and out of this matchup with no damage to his legacy.
And then things will get interesting.
You and I have gone back and forth on this before, Mike.
One thing we’ve never seen McGregor do is take a step backward. To him, it’s always on to bigger and better things once a goal is realized. In that way, it’s tough to imagine him fighting Mayweather and then going back to the UFC to accept a low-profile matchup against someone like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson or even Diaz again, for less exposure and a lot less money.
On the other hand, McGregor is only 28 years old—still just a pup, even by the harsh standards of combat sports. As you once put it to me, Mike, a guy who likes his lavish lifestyle as much as McGregor obviously does ain’t gonna quit the money-making business before he even turns 30.
He set a blistering pace during his most recent UFC run, fought four fights in 11 months, won two titles and smashed MMA pay-per-view records at every turn. On May 6, he and longtime partner Dee Devlin welcomed their first child—a boy named Conor Jr.
So, I suppose I’m going to end this by saying I’ve given up trying to anticipate what Conor McGregor will do. I’ve learned the hard way not to take him at his word, but the only thing I can say with reasonable certainty will be that his next project stands to be bigger, bolder and even more audacious than this one.
Immediately following the conclusion of UFC 211, pundits did as pundits do, looking for ways to quantify and contextualize the impressive achievements of UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk on Saturday….
Immediately following the conclusion of UFC 211, pundits did as pundits do, looking for ways to quantify and contextualize the impressive achievements of UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk on Saturday.
More than one outlet proclaimed Miocic the UFC’s greatest heavyweight of all time, while analyst Kenny Florian boldly stated that Jedrzejczyk is already right there as the best female fighter ever.
Such pronouncements are debatable, of course. Some might also say they are a bit premature. When assessing historical greatness, we often need the benefit of time. And when it comes to age and sustained excellence, nobody on the UFC 211 card has done it like Frankie Edgar, perhaps the most underrated and underappreciated fighter in UFC history.
On Saturday night, he beat the bejesus out of a young and flashy burgeoning star, Yair Rodriguez, and then explained the blowout in an equally economical manner.
“There are levels to this,” he said.
After Saturday night’s master class, it’s fair to say that Edgar has quietly put together one of the best 10-year stretches in UFC history. In fact, an argument can be made that of all the fighters ever to grace the Octagon, he has the second-best decade-long stretch of anyone, behind only Georges St-Pierre.
While scores of fighters have reached subjective levels of greatness in the UFC, true longevity has proved elusive at the elite level.
A look at some of the biggest names proves that.
Tito Ortiz debuted in 1997. By the end of 2007, he’d had multiple surgeries, gone winless in his last two fights and was largely believed to no longer be among the light heavyweight’s elite.
Chuck Liddell debuted in 1998. By the end of 2008, he’d lost three of four (including two by knockout) and retirement whispers had begun.
Ken Shamrock hit his decade mark losing three of four.
Even the great Anderson Silva ended his 10th UFC year with his fourth loss in five fights.
In a sport that is exceptionally demanding on the body, that prizes speed, that features an ever-changing learning curve and that hastens the inability to absorb head trauma, such career arcs are more the rule than the exception.
Edgar, who debuted in February 2007, is currently 10-plus years deep. Yet during a career in which he’s ignored the common practice of extreme weight-cutting by fighting near his natural size, Edgar has never been blown out, knocked out or submitted.
His resume of wins includes a list of lighter-weight luminaries: B.J. Penn, Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, Cub Swanson, Gray Maynard.
Perhaps most impressive for Edgar is that after his only career drought, a three-fight losing streak from February 2012 to February 2013, he rebounded impressively and has won seven of his last eight fights since, including four by finish.
After 10 years in the UFC, Edgar is 16-5-1, ranks second in his featherweight class and is still performing at a peak level.
This kind of sustained success would have been impossible to predict when Edgar debuted at UFC 67 as a heavy underdog to hot prospect Tyson Griffin, only to emerge with a unanimous-decision win. If the upset itself wasn’t enough of a sign, his ability to withstand the pain of a late-fight kneebar attempt should have alerted us that we were watching someone special.
The totality of his career shows that he deserves consideration for the best pound-for-pound fighter in UFC history. While many fighters draw every ounce of water from their bodies in order to compete in the lowest possible division, Edgar often fought without cutting more than a pound or two.
Of his 22-fight UFC run, he has never been the taller man in the matchup. Not once. Because unofficial weights are not recorded, it’s impossible to know if he was the true smaller man in every matchup he’s ever entered, but it’s almost a lock. Who might have been lighter than him? Perhaps Hermes Franca?
He himself has said on multiple occasions he’d be able to make the bantamweight 135-pound limit; he just never quite felt the need to.
His heart is beyond question. Anyone who watched his trilogy with Gray Maynard will forever have those first-round sequences etched in their brains, Edgar somehow bouncing back from guaranteed defeat on multiple occasions.
Those courageous displays are legendary, but Edgar should also be revered for his professionalism in a sport that often ignores polished professionals in favor of counterculture wild cards. His low-key approach serves as a reminder that greatness can be achieved in any number of ways.
He has excellent basics and mechanics, from striking to wrestling to jiu-jitsu, leaving no obvious holes for opponents to game-plan against. He always appears to be in great shape. His gas tank is unending. His surrounds himself with top coaches. He’s never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs or even been a subject of rumors.
Offensively, he certainly has his favorite techniques, from feints and jabs to the body shots setting up level changes to the knee pick, but he’s always added new tricks, from wheel kicks to new takedown setups and beyond, and that evolution is the best explainer for Edgar’s continued success.
As far as 10-year UFC stretches go, only St-Pierre could demonstrably boast of a better run. He first competed in the UFC in 2004 and, at the end of his decade with the promotion, had gone 20-2 while holding the welterweight championship twice.
Randy Couture also has a strong case. He went 12-5, and as his 10-year UFC anniversary hit, he defeated Tim Sylvia for the UFC heavyweight championship.
Edgar’s run stands right alongside theirs, having experienced frequent success while never suffering a noticeable deterioration of skills.
Others may one day rival or exceed him. Demetrious Johnson has won 12 straight fights in the UFC and is a dominant champ, but has to put in four more years to complete a decade. Jon Jones has a brilliant fight resume but has another year-and-a-half to go until hitting the 10-year mark, and with a rough recent stretch behind him and a Daniel Cormier rematch approaching, his future narrative is anyone’s guess. Other champions like Conor McGregor (9-1 in four years with UFC) Jedrzejczyk (8-0 in three years with UFC) only have to look as far as Ronda Rousey to see how quickly legacies can unravel.
Edgar? He just keeps on ticking. During his time, we’ve watched the shuttering of the WEC, Strikeforce and Pride, we’ve seen the “Machida Era” and “TRT Era” come and go, the rises and falls of Brock Lesnar and Rousey, the addition of women’s divisions within the Octagon, the sale of the UFC from the Fertittas to WME-IMG.
A lot has changed. But one thing has remained rock-steady, and that is this: When Frankie Edgar signs to fight another bout, he’s going to train like a madman, he’s going to bring hell with him, and when it’s all over, he’ll probably be standing in the middle of the cage with his arms raised in much-deserved glory.
The baddest man on the planet is an American everyman, a Rust Belt resident, part-time firefighter and soft-spoken gentleman who fights out of a town named “Independence.”
The baddest man on the planet arrived as a complete surprise. A collegiate baseb…
The baddest man on the planet is an American everyman, a Rust Belt resident, part-time firefighter and soft-spoken gentleman who fights out of a town named “Independence.”
The baddest man on the planet arrived as a complete surprise. A collegiate baseball player who had major league dreams, Stipe Miocic would not have been anyone’s pick to become an all-time heavyweight great when he made his MMA debut at age 27.
Yet, seven years later, here we are with Miocic on the cusp of history. After Saturday night’s first-round starching of ex-champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 211 in Dallas, he has defended the UFC heavyweight championship twice.
That may not seem like much, but if he is able to do it just one more time, he will stand alone with the most heavyweight title defenses in promotional history.
Saturday night’s work was shockingly simple. Dos Santos has been beaten before, even finished before, but never so decisively. All it took was a Miocic right hand behind the ear and a few cursory piston-like left hands on the mat, and that was that. It took all of two minutes, 22 seconds, far different from their first go-around, which took the entire 25-minute allotment of time.
Between then and now, the growth pattern and learning curve have slanted strongly in Miocic’s favor. There were lessons to be learned, and they were absorbed, drilled and enacted Saturday.
His hands have gotten faster and more accurate. He’s better able to pace himself. His confidence has increased to the point that after the win, he even allowed himself a rare though modest boast.
“I am the best in the world,” he told UFC analyst Joe Rogan moments after the win. “I’m the heavyweight champ.”
Rogan followed up by asking what the best in the world wanted to do next. What kind of challenge was upcoming?
“Right now, it’s my kitchen,” Miocic said. “I have to remodel my kitchen when I get home, so that’s what I’m worried about right now.”
Thinking about the kitchen? This is the baddest man on the planet?
He is, and he’s both endearing and unexpected.
When he last fought Dos Santos, it could well have been the end of his arc. He completed only one of his 18 takedown attempts, per FightMetric, a woeful output that doomed his offensive attack and allowed Dos Santos to let his hands go free.
Still, getting to the finish line with the longtime divisional No. 2 imbued Miocic with the understanding that he could hang with and eventually surpass the weight class’ elite.
Five fights and five knockouts later, he’s proved that.
Dos Santos went from teacher to stepping stone, so quickly was he surpassed.
Now, it’s onward and upward as the target on Miocic’s back grows larger.
The UFC heavyweight championship has historically been won and lost with a quickness, a hot potato of a belt that has never quite settled in around anyone’s waist. The division has been around for 20 years, yet no one has managed to defend it more than twice in a row. Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Cain Velasquez, Brock Lesnar; they’ve all been borrowers more than owners.
The inability to hold on to the strap largely comes due to circumstances and physics. The former is the more unpredictable of the two. Frank Mir, for example, never even got to attempt a defense after a horrific motorcycle crash that nearly killed him. Lesnar suffered a bout with diverticulitis that cost him 12 inches of his colon and roughly a half year of his career. The latter is more simple; you get two 250-pound men in a cage, and the first clean punch might end it.
Miocic isn’t a technical marvel on the level of a Joanna Jedrzejczyk—who also successfully defended her belt at UFC 211—but he boasts a combination of power and ruggedness that serve as a nearly unshakeable base.
On Saturday, Dos Santos tried to rattle the champ by slamming kicks into the champ’s legs. Miocic endured a few and showed a brief flash of pain, but it only seemed to anger him, causing him to come forward and attack.
Dos Santos has shown a propensity to drop his hands and square himself up as he nears the fence, a doubly dangerous proposition that has cost him in past losses. It’s a mistake he repeated Saturday, and Miocic and his team were well-prepared. When the challenger backed himself to the perimeter, Miocic breached the distance. His first right hand grazed Dos Santos. The second landed square behind the ear and sent Dos Santos crashing to the mat.
It would be foolish to suggest Miocic is unbeatable, or even that his reign will last a while. The division has been filled with landmines through the years, and Cain Velasquez may show up any day and lay claim to the belt one more time. Anything is possible, and that is what has made it both fun and maddening.
Miocic is only proof of that. An everyman with a side gig shouldn’t be the world heavyweight champion. The sport is just too complex, too layered. Yet here we are. Here he is.
Stipe Miocic is the heavyweight king, and after he finishes his kitchen, his next challenge is history.
Every time that Paulo “Borrachinha” Henrique Costa has stepped in the cage, he has decimated an opponent. The middleweight has done it any number of ways. The maulings have come via head kick, ground-and-pound, right cross, left hook, combination barrage and the kitchen sink. They’ve come in small regional promotions and followed him into the UFC. And they’ve all come in a single round or less.