Welcome to If I Did It the show where we solve PR kerfluffles from the world of MMA and beyond. This week we look at the Nevada Athletic Commission settling with Brock Lesnar, Nate Diaz and Jon Jones plus Jennifer Lawrence trashes Hawaii and Barack Obama looks back at Putin-Gate.
Alexei Auld is back with a brand new book available 7 Secret Sources of Inspiration: A Snappy Guide for Creative Procrastinators to grill Eugene S. Robinson (who’s pushing a GoFundMe to pay for the new Oxbow album) and myself with some PR stumpers from the world of combat sports.
For the audio only version check us out on SoundCloud and be sure to subscribe to MMA NATION on iTunes and subscribe to MMA Nation on YouTube so you’ll never miss an episode. This week’s kerfuffles include:
- You’re WME-IMG. Nate Diaz, Brock Lesnar, and Jon Jones have a December 15th date with destiny before the Nevada Athletic Commission for a “proposed adjudication agreement”. Does your PR prep for each fighter differ? Or do you have specific plans in place?
- You’re UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo. Max Holloway’s victory last weekend at UFC 206 solidified your next match up. But he doesn’t seem keen on a February 11th date in Brooklyn at UFC 208 when telling Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, “We will see what happens, I don’t want to give up Christmas and I don’t want to give up my son’s birthday on January 4th for February 11th and the guy don’t show up.” Is that an opening for playing mind games with Max?
- You’re Jennifer Lawrence. Your disrespectful destruction of a sacred Hawaiian site described on The Graham Norton Show resulted in such a kerfuffle, you apologized to “the internet”. And it fell flat. The reason? You came across as fake and you should’ve apologized to Hawaiians. Given your PR image as an activist champion, can you act your way into making amends?
- You’re President Barack Obama. According to the Washington Post you were informed by multiple intelligence agencies that Putin was trying to get Trump elected by leaking hacked info. When Mitch McConnell balked at making a bipartisan announcement in the fall you did nothing. Now that President-Elect Trump is your legacy is there anything you can do to make amends?
- TEACHABLE MOMENT: You’re the Endicott Fire Department. One of your firefighters blamed Black Lives Matter for burning his home. A family member told WBNG, “Across the back of house on a strip of siding read this message: ‘Lie with pigs, fry like bacon.’” After investigating, authorities claim it was the firefighter who wrote that message…before he burned his own house. Are there steps fire departments can take to prevent their fighters from fanning the flames of discord?
- KID NATE’S HEEL TURN
- REGULAR FEATURE: EUGENE’S LOST BATTALION
Enjoy!