I have impeccable timing. A few days ago I wrote about why I had decided to join the “Rally for Mark Hunt” movement. A day later, one single day later, it was reported that Dana White had effectively handed down a death sentence to the cause and proclaimed that Mark Hunt would not be replacing Alistair Overeem no matter how hard fans rallied.
So now I’m putting up a post that is one-third response and two-thirds “it was fun while it lasted,” hence the name of the article. Three days later.
As I said: impeccable timing. Nevertheless, let’s begin.
Would it have been so bad if Hunt challenged for the UFC heavyweight championship? I don’t think so. If I go into specifics we’ll be here all day and we’ll skew far away from the good-natured intent of this post.
But just off the top of my head: Brock Lesnar, three-fight win streak, a vocal and passionate fan following, styles make fights, Frank Mir sucks against strikers, something something, Overeem cycles horse meat.
Feel free to debate any of those points at your leisure, I’ll more than likely join in on the conversation. But, for now, let’s move on to the core argument of this little blurb:
Sure was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?
Admit it: We like arguing. Sports fans argue, but MMA fans tend to take things to the next level. You know you secretly love it. I know I do.
And while some of the debate and some of the threads turned really nasty and hateful on both sides, for the most part I really enjoyed both reading and discussing the pros and cons of Hunt getting a shot at the UFC heavyweight championship.
Also, let’s not forget how, for the briefest of instances, a large section of the MMA world stood united under the “Rally for Mark Hunt” banner.
This extended way past just a bunch of fans trying to get their voice heard. Popular MMA Web sites featured prominent news stories covering the growing movement. Several pro fighters gave their thoughts (mostly of support) through Facebook and/or Twitter. Even NickTheFace, the be-all and end-all when it comes to UFC hype videos on YouTube, posted a “Rally For Mark Hunt” video.
So, yeah—it was a whole hell of a lot of fun while it lasted.
And I hope that’s what we all take away from this situation, in all honesty. Yes, I do think it sucks that White responded to such an interesting and engaging movement with one single sentence. Yes, I do think UFC fans should feel slighted that White more or less swept all this under the rug.
But even if we didn’t accomplish our goal of getting Hunt to replace Overeem, we still accomplished something important. Despite being some of the most polarizing, opinionated, argumentative fans in all of sports, for the briefest of moments we were united as one.
And I’m damn proud of that.
I hope you are, too. I don’t regret jumping on the “Rally For Mark Hunt” bandwagon. I can even laugh at myself and realize how funny it is that a day after I jump on the bandwagon and give my big rallying cry, we finally got our answer: a big, loud “not happenin’.”
But no regrets, so I’ll say it again: It sure was fun while it lasted.
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