I don’t think I’m alone in saying that as an MMA fan, I can be a little moody sometimes. The MMA news cycle tends to be just that: cyclical. Bad news tends to come in heaps, and when it does it’s hard to not get cynical and jaded. But…
I don’t think I’m alone in saying that as an MMA fan, I can be a little moody sometimes. The MMA news cycle tends to be just that: cyclical. Bad news tends to come in heaps, and when it does it’s hard to not get cynical and jaded. But here’s my latest attempt to inject some positivity into both my writings and the scene at large: today I’ll be focusing on the 10 career-defining moments of my ten favorite fighters.
But first, a quick word: this is pure fan service, and I’m the fan. If you don’t agree with my choices, feel free to submit your own. But I’m not taking some grand stand with this list: this is just the 10 moments I’ll never forget in the careers of my favorite fighters. These are the moments that when I think back about them, not only do I think that this moment defines the fighter, I can’t help but recall the crazy emotions that ran through my head, some of which I physically acted out, and all of which I’ll share here openly and honestly. I should probably consider at least some of them embarrassing, but hey, it comes with the territory of being a true fan of a sport I love. So let’s begin.
As an exclusive follower of MMA, I can’t compare the rate of tragic accidents and injuries to other sports. What I can say, though, is that in the near-decade that I’ve been following this sport, the amount of tragic injury and even death s…
As an exclusive follower of MMA, I can’t compare the rate of tragic accidents and injuries to other sports. What I can say, though, is that in the near-decade that I’ve been following this sport, the amount of tragic injury and even death seems to be low.
I refuse to say “acceptable,” because it’s not acceptable, it’s never been acceptable and it will never be acceptable. It’s just…not as bad as I worry it could be. Sadly, though, it’s time to once again talk about a fighter that has now been paralyzed due to Mixed Martial Arts.
MixedMartialArts.com brings us the story. On May 14, Devin Johnson was practicing at the Ultimate Fitness MMA gym which popular UFC star and former WEC champion Urijah Faber co-owns. After being caught in a guillotine choke, Johnson shot for a double leg takedown. It was there that things went horribly wrong, and Johnson’s spine was badly injured.
The family of Johnson has set up a website, both to update people on his progress, and to offer a means for people to donate to help cover Johnson’s medical bills. For any interested, please click here.
What strikes me as so very sad about this story is not just that this horrific injury occurred, but that a young fighter’s career is over before it ever started. Johnson is only twenty-two years old, and was training to make his MMA debut in September of this year.
Now he’s going to have to learn how to walk again.
And so this leads me to wonder: what can we do to try and prevent something like this from happening? It’s very unfortunate, but this is not the first time someone has become paralyzed due to doing something risky in Mixed Martial Arts.
Do we just admit defeat and say that that’s the risk you take? Are we really that callous? But on the opposite extreme, do we want to start regulating every single thing about Mixed Martial Arts? Do we make it illegal to shoot for a takedown if you’re caught in a guillotine? Do we really want our rules and regulations that nuanced?
For my part, here’s what I think should be done: we need to realize that we can’t be proactive about this situation, no matter how badly we want to. We can recognize basic signs of risk and teach ways to avoid it, but I don’t think we’ll be able to pinpoint every single move, hold or technique that could, at some point in time, cause a serious avoidable injury.
So, the first part of my argument does seem to be similar to the “that’s the risk you take” argument. But I feel nothing so extreme. What I am saying is that this sport is so nuanced and evolves at such a rapid rate that we can’t go about thinking that we’ll be able to train against all the potentially dangerous techniques. We’re not mind readers, we can’t predict the future and ultimately, we can’t physically force a fighter to not do something potentially risky when they’re in a tight spot.
But here’s what we can do: if we have to be reactive to situations like these, (and while it’s unfortunate, I’m making the argument that we do) we need to educate fighters as early and as often as possible.
We need to start making a list of all the techniques that definitely have caused serious injury, and we need to come up with ways to train against those techniques. If training methods against those techniques exist, we need to make sure as many fighters as possible know.
At the end of the day, here’s what I’m envisioning: in addition to the usual routine of coaches teaching how to avoid dangerous techniques, I’d like to see a yearly fighter summit on health. Maybe it’s larger than just a day spent learning—or even re-learning—about dangerous techniques that have caused serious injury and how to avoid them. Maybe you throw in a day or two of which supplements you could/should be taking, which supplements are currently banned and why, how to effectively diet, how much of a weight cut is too much of a weight cut, etc.
But I want at least one day to be devoted to describing techniques that have caused serious injuries in the past and how a fighter can do their best to avoid either injuring themselves or their opponents with said techniques.
Hopefully then, we will have a serious shot at preventing a lot of these tragic accidents from occurring.
And before I go, I’d just like to say that I’m really pulling for Mr. Johnson, and I wish him nothing but the best.
Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net
Does anyone really care about the UFC’s UFC on FUEL TV efforts?Unfortunately, it seems increasingly evident that this series of live fight nights have become irrelevant in the eyes of many. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t really fe…
Does anyone really care about the UFC’s UFC on FUEL TV efforts?
Unfortunately, it seems increasingly evident that this series of live fight nights have become irrelevant in the eyes of many. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t really feature any big stars, or maybe it’s just a simple case of a lot of people not getting FUEL TV as part of their television subscription program.
No matter what the cause, the result is the same: I really don’t see much excitement for UFC on FUEL TV 3. And that’s something I’d like to correct.
So, in no particular order, here’s a jumble of reasons why you should be excited for UFC on FUEL TV 3.
Recently it’s been reported that the UFC is in the midst of organizing a fighter summit that will address the recent problems revolving around the behaviors of several prominent fighters. While I think that the raw honesty of its athletes i…
Recently it’s been reported that the UFC is in the midst of organizing a fighter summit that will address the recent problems revolving around the behaviors of several prominent fighters.
While I think that the raw honesty of its athletes is one of the main reasons that MMA is such an interesting sport to follow, sometimes if you can’t say anything nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all.
Aside from “behavior” being a blanket topic, it’s not known what will be particularly addressed at this summit. So here’s what I think the UFC should cover for this summit on fighter behavior.
You are what you tweet.
Whoever knew that so much damage could be done in so few characters? Dana White himself raised a very valid point when it comes to Twitter: you don’t have enough characters to get your intentions across.
Subtlety and sarcasm are already hard to translate across the Internet, but when you have to whittle down your words to 140 characters, it becomes near-impossible.
But not only does this apply to Twitter, this applies to most forms of social media in general.
So, what to do? First, you need to realize that as a professional athlete, people will view your social media accounts as their all-access pass into your life. The more raw and honest you get, the more people will come to associate your online accounts with “the real you.”
So when you do something that offends your followers, the reaction will be much more negative than normal since they feel like they’ve been betrayed.
Is it weird? Yes. But we live in a weird age. We live in an age where what we do in the digital world has become almost as important as what we do in the real world. Some would say it’s already as important, and a few would even say that it’s more important.
You’ve heard of “do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you.”
Perhaps a more fitting term in this digital age is “don’t post it online if you wouldn’t shout it in public.”
Dark humor needs to stay in the dark.
I could sum this up relatively easy with one sentence.
No rape jokes.
But the more I think about it, the more I realize that that’s just an example of the problem, and not the problem itself. These types of “dark humor” jokes have a time and place, and that place isn’t in public.
Another way to think about it: leave the controversial jokes to the comedians.
It doesn’t matter if you’re simply quoting a dark humor joke, or a line from a show that has dark humor in it, or even just a dark humor joke you heard or read.
Don’t do it.
Most of the time, dark humor jokes are so funny because they’re so offensive and controversial. But “so offensive it’s funny” to you just could be plain old “very offensive” to somebody else. And when you’re a professional athlete that’s supposed to be representing a sport, you can’t take that kind of risk.
If anything, feel proud that so many people are paying attention to you that you can literally not say anything without at least one person getting offended. But the more blatantly offensive you get, the more people will get offended.
As your popularity snowballs, so does the amount of people that could get offended if you say something generally perceived as offensive or controversial.
And when that snowballs, the end result comes in the form of what we’ve recently seen: major sponsors issuing public demands to get fighters in line.
Understand that this is a “do as I say, not as I do” situation.
What I mean by this is simple: it’s awfully hypocritical of the UFC to organize a fighter summit on behavior when the public face of your promotion spends more time talking with four-letter words than without them.
But the reality of the situation is this: Dana White can get away with it and you can’t. This isn’t something the UFC can just come out and say, but it’s the truth. If you’re looking to leadership for a positive example of who to emulate, Lorenzo Fertitta is far better of a role model than Dana White.
I’m not saying that UFC fighters should start censoring themselves. I’m just saying that maybe something you think is awesome doesn’t have to be described as “****ing awesome”, or if you had a bad day you don’t have to describe your day as “****ty”.
If you try hard enough, you can get your point across without curse words. Just don’t think that Dana White is going to be held to the same standard. Again: it’s not fair, but it’s the truth.
For certain fighters, a majority of their popularity comes from something I like to call the “How Can You Not” argument. As in: How can you not like them?The primary example of this type of fighter is Wanderlei Silva, but heading into UFC o…
For certain fighters, a majority of their popularity comes from something I like to call the “How Can You Not” argument. As in: How can you not like them?
The primary example of this type of fighter is Wanderlei Silva, but heading into UFC on FOX 3, I think this argument defines Pat Barry, as well. And with the recent and varied shakeups of the heavyweight division, I think the UFC needs him now more than ever.
But before we go into the specifics, I’d like to point out that the UFC needs someone like Barry even if their heavyweight division wasn’t in a state of general upheaval. Outside of the ring, Barry has shown himself to be a very sincere, very honest, very appreciative MMA fighter. He’s often pretty hilarious as well.
And unlike some fighters that have to be humbled by a knockout, Barry was always a humble fighter. And in this modern era of “super-athletes with super-egos,” that’s very rare to see.
In general, he’s a very entertaining fighter. But the UFC needs Barry in particular right now due to several interesting developments in recent months.
The obvious example is the nine-month suspension of Alistair Overeem, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’d honestly say that most of the UFC’s top heavyweights are currently in a state of flux.
Junior dos Santos, the current heavyweight champion, has to prove that he has the ability to transform his incredible run to get to the top into an incredible run to stay at the top.
Overeem, as previously mentioned, stormed into the UFC and became the No. 2 guy overnight, and just as quickly he’s on the sideline for nine months.
Former champion Cain Velasquez now has to rebuild his image almost from the ground-up after getting knocked out in just over a minute.
Former champion Frank Mir’s position in the division always seems to be in flux no matter what the situation is, and that’s definitely true right now as Mir is set to challenge for a championship despite the fact that the last time he faced a striker the caliber of Dos Santos (Shane Carwin) he was knocked out in under four minutes.
Mark Hunt certainly benefited from the “Rally for Mark Hunt” movement, and as a big Hunt fan myself I’m very excited to see where he goes from here. But he’s still living under the shadow of his epic losing streak—and now that he’s back to just being another contender—he’s probably at least two, maybe even three fights away from everyone willing to accept him as a championship challenger.
Roy Nelson always seems to bounce between a big win and a humbling loss. Fabricio Werdum is knocking on the door, but a lot of people still remember his bizarre performance against Overeem. Antonio Silva is coming into the UFC and maybe he’ll be a contender too.
And in Strikeforce, the winner of Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Grand Prix will almost certainly be going to the UFC and entering as an instant contender. Even the loser of the Grand Prix will more than likely enter the Octagon, and with the skills Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett have shown in Strikeforce, both of them could be title contenders in only one or two fights!
I could go on, but my point is this: Throughout this sea of competitors that all seem to fluctuate in the rankings, you’ve got a fighter that comes to either get the knockout or get knocked out.
If Barry loses at UFC on Fox 3, he’ll have won only one out of his last four fights. With most UFC fighters, that’s usually a good sign that they’ll soon be out of the promotion. But in cases like Yoshihiro Akiyama and Dan Hardy, the UFC seems unable to let go of either fighter no matter how many they lose.
I think the same exemption should be made for Barry.
Not only that—I think it will be made for Barry. The UFC, as a promotion, has never had a problem seeing what’s directly in front of its face. Barry is a charismatic striker that can, will and has given UFC fans amazing moments that have us talking for weeks.
This is an “ends justify the means” situation. Until he goes on a losing streak that lasts for more than two fights (Akiyama and Hardy are both currently on four-fight losing streaks and still employed by the UFC) and/or until he starts being a boring fighter, Barry deserves to remain in the Octagon no matter who he’s fighting or where he ranks in the division.
When it comes to Barry, I don’t think his place in the division is as important as his role. He’s the guy that will make you feel like you got more than your money’s worth. So long as that doesn’t change, the UFC needs Barry now more than ever.
I can’t think of a nice way to say this so I’ll just say it: I’ve only watched one single episode from this season of The Ultimate Fighter because I’ve passed the point of caring about this series. I don’t think I’m …
I can’t think of a nice way to say this so I’ll just say it: I’ve only watched one single episode from this season of The Ultimate Fighter because I’ve passed the point of caring about this series.
I don’t think I’m alone in this sentiment, though.
It seems like every week I’m hearing that the ratings are down and nowhere close to the usual numbers the UFC was able to pull on Spike TV.
So what went wrong?
Feel free to add your own reasons or even dissect mine, but for me, here are the reasons why I gave up on this season of The Ultimate Fighter.
