At UFC 139 Stephan Bonnar issued two apologies. One was to Josh Koscheck about a shirt he had made that had offended the welterweight fighter.
This was warranted as no matter how much it might have been silly for Koscheck to be offended by the shirt, it still is up to Bonnar to mediate such disagreements instead of possibly being sued over them, as Koscheck had threatened.
The other apology was to the fans for not making an exciting fight.
This one was not necessary at all and should never have been made because honestly, the fans shouldn’t expect such fights from Bonnar every time.
Fans have a belief about the “American Psycho” and that is that he will just brawl with technique and thoughts of winning coming second.
And that is ridiculous.
Bonnar’s job is to win fights. Being exciting and winning bonuses for fight of the night might keep him in the cage a little longer, but it comes down to being the best in the cage. To do that, sometimes you can’t put on a thrilling performance. Just a dominant one.
Bonnar is at a stage where this might be his last run in the cage. If he doesn’t prove himself to be dominant force, he won’t get a shot at being champion.
With his commentating for the company and his post-Ultimate Fighter shows that appear on the website, it’s safe to say he will always have a place in the UFC, but it will not always be in the cage.
Instead of an apology Bonnar should stop doing what he did in his pre-fight promo. He came off as a fighter who just wanted to swing for the fences, but at the same time came off as fake macho persona.
Instead of trying to appease the fans and give them what they want Bonnar should just tell them that he is going to dominate while trying to look for the knockout or submission if he can get away with it. That he wants to be a champion before he retires because that is why he got into fighting to begin with.
It sends a false message to the fans and it continues to give fans a fake reason to watch Bonnar. They should be willing to watch him because he is a talented fighter who can not only win fights, but do it emphatically.
And as for the fight he had at UFC 139?
It actually was thrilling from a technical standpoint with him using a bit of technical boxing and quite a bit of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to win.
That may help him to lose some casual fans, but only the ones that are never happy unless it ends up being a toe-to-toe war, even when it doesn’t need to be.
And if Bonnar wants to win, he doesn’t need that—and he shouldn’t be sorry about it.
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