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UFC Weekend Aftermath: Pondering the price of an instant classic
There are two ways of looking at the magnificent UFC welterweight championship matchup between “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald on Saturday night.
Both were represented by visuals which went viral on social media, representing both sides of the coin in the aftermath of Lawler’s thrilling fifth-round finish of MacDonald at UFC 189.
The first was the Instagram photo of Lawler and MacDonald in the hospital together, battered, bruised and smiling. Not only do fights like Lawler-MacDonald represent the highest ideals of combat sports at its finest — elite skills, athleticism, and courage in the face of adversity — but the sense of sportsmanship and respect shine through.
That’s why hospital pictures of Lawler-MacDonald, like Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson before them, serve as validation of why we invest so much time and emotion in a sport which so often seems to pelt us with an endless stream of bad news.
Then, there’s the flip side, represented in the disturbing GIF of MacDonald which made the rounds. Taken in the split seconds after the fight’s stoppage, MacDonald, one of the toughest guys you’ll ever come across, is in a disoriented state, looking more like the victim of a street assault trying in vain to make sense of the situation than a professional athlete.
MacDonald absorbed the sort of beating, with damage that included a shattered nose and a broken foot, that makes you wonder if he’ll ever be able to return to the same level. Lawler, the victor, also looked worse for wear. You can’t help but wonder of this is MMA’s equivalent of Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward, thrilling battles which took years off both boxers’ careers.
“Robbie Lawler’s lip, if you could’ve been in the Octagon and saw this lip, he would talk and this part of the lip would move and the other part wouldn’t,” UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. “[MacDonald’s] nose was broken. They asked him, when Rory got out back, they said, ‘what year is it?’ He didn’t know what year it was. First of all, it was a war. And a complete display of chin, heart, grit, dogged determination, and the will to win from both guys. When you talk about (the best) fights ever, that’s what I’m talking about.”
The good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, they all blur together and somehow emerge as a cohesive whole in a truly transcendent fight, like Jones vs. Gustafsson, Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio Rua, Nick Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi, and on down the line, stand the test of time and serve as a reminder why we all started watching this crazy sport in the first place.
Lawler vs. MacDonald, with all its beauty and horror, belongs on MMA’s short list of greatest fights. That such an encounter took place in the greater context of one of the most eventful and most-watched evenings in the sport’s history only underscores the impact.
UFC 189 quotes
“It’s damn hard work. But every time I say, ‘you know what, f— this. Next time I’m not doing all of this.’ And then I get handed the check, and I’m like, ‘alright then, I’ll do it one more time.'” — Conor McGregor on his media obligations leading up to the fight.
“I’ve never disrespected the guy in my life. I like Jose Aldo very much, his wife, his family.” — Dana White, 24 hours after once again claiming Aldo did not have a broken rib.
“That elbow he threw to my face loosened me up. I figured that if I didn’t loosen up he was going to, so I knew it was time.” — Matt Brown, describing the series in which he answered a Tim Means standing elbow with a couple of his own, leading to a submission victory.
Up: Conor McGregor. Yes, I’m stating the obvious. So be it. McGregor entered the Octagon with as much pressure on his shoulders as any fighter who has stepped into the cage in the sport’s 22-year history. The hype had built to a crescendo, he carried an entire nation’s expectations on his shoulders, and after a too-long training camp and media grind, he had to face exactly the sort of opponent many thought his promoters had steered him away from, and do so on two weeks’ notice. To be certain, some of the questions about how McGregor can handle wrestlers remain. But never question his heart. Chad Mendes took McGregor into deep waters, and all McGregor needed was one opening, one chance to escape from a nightmare, and he made the most of it.
Up: Thomas Almeida. Every promising prospect must endure their trial by fire on their way up the ranks, that moment when a crafty vet dishes out everything the young’un can handle. Thomas Almeida found his dance partner Saturday in the venerable Brad “One Punch” Pickett. Pickett threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Brazilian bantamweight in the opening round, breaking his nose in the process. But Almeida answered the call in the second round with a Knockout of the Year contender of a flying knee. If the next-generation Chute Boxe standout goes on to become a legit championship contender, we’ll remember UFC 189 as a key moment in his development.
Up: Matt Brown. There were a long string of fighters who deserve plaudits in both victory and defeat at UFC 189, and it’s no accident we’re not giving out any “downs” after a night of such greatness. Since this piece would run far too long if we went into them all, let’s instead give a nod to the man who got the ball rolling. The last six bouts of UFC 189 were so great that it’s easy to forget most of the undercard snoozer-worthy. That was before Brown and Tim Means put on an exciting slugfest in the “prelim main event.” When Brown took offense to Means’ standing elbow, responded with a couple nasty elbows of his own, and then submitted Means in short order, he threw down the gauntlet, and the main-card fighters responded and created a legendary evening.
Up: Michelle Waterson. The former Invicta atomweight champion made a strong debut at Sunday night’s Ultimate Fighter 21 Finale, rallying from a jittery start and finishing Angela Magana in the third round. Waterson, who had one of the truly under-appreciated great fights of recent years in her Invicta title-winning performance against Jessica Penne, has all the tools to become a breakthrough strawweight star. And while she’s probably not yet ready for a UFC title shot, a bunch of intriguing fights, not the least of which would be a Penne rematch, await “The Karate Hottie.”
Hold: Cyborg Justino. Cyborg’s 45-second demolition of Faith Van Duin on Thursday night has become an all-too-familiar scene. The idea of Invicta importing someone you’ve never heard of for their featherweight champion to steamroll has run its course. Ronda Rousey holds all the cards and she’s only going to fight Justino at 135 pounds. So let’s go ahead and have Justino attempt to get down to 135 for her next Invicta fight. If it turns out she can’t make it, no harm, no foul. But it’s high time she at least tries.
Interesting calls
First things first: Those who were trying to claim that Herb Dean made a favorable call on the UFC’s behalf by waving off McGregor-Mendes with three seconds left in the second round, go put on a dunce cap and sit in the corner. The referee’s concern is for the safety of the fighters. The clock is irrelevant. Mendes took a ridiculous left hand, turtled, and wasn’t defending or answering. That’s a blueprint for stopping a fight. Whether it happened 10 seconds into the round, at the midpoint, with three seconds left, or with one (see the Cyborg Justino-Gina Carano fight from 2009 for a fight correctly waved off at 4:59), if the fight’s over, it’s over.
While we’re talking about referees, let’s also give a nod to John McCarthy. The veteran did a perfect job overseeing Lawler vs. MacDonald. The end of the third round was an example of when you let the fighter continue in a one-sided situation. MacDonald had Lawler hurt and poured it on, but Lawler was firing bombs and responsive right up until the final horn. The fact you barely even noticed McCarthy is a testament to his job well done.
Meanwhile, one thing that stuck out from the opening Fight Pass bout was the UFC’s new graphics package (minus the FS1 portion, which retained FOX’s regular graphic package). The look is clean and modern. Adding the names of the fighters competing to the screen, on either side of the clock, is helpful, particularly for undercard competitors without much name recognition. Getting their names out front and center should help them gain traction. All in all, the changes were a much-needed fresh coat of paint on a presentation which had gone stale.
Which isn’t to say there wasn’t one sour note. For whatever reason, the UFC took all the negative feedback it’s received over the years on the dated “Face the Pain” opening and decided to make it even more annoying, with a remixed version. At this point, one can only assume Stemm, a band which would otherwise be long forgotten, must have locked the UFC into some sort of unbreakable lifetime contract for the song’s usage on their pay-per-views.
Yeah, I’ll go there, and yeah, I know there isn’t much chance of this happening. Still … what’s next for Lawler after downing MacDonald? I’ll admit, this is the first time I’ve even seen one fighter beat another fighter twice, and yet still want to see them tangle for a third time. But realistically, MacDonald is going to be out awhile, and he took the sort of loss that would be better for him to take a tune-up fight before throwing him back at the wolves. Beyond that, you could make a case for the Johny Hendricks trilogy fight, for which there doesn’t seem much fan enthusiasm. The rest of the pack are quality fighters, from Brown to Carlos Condit to Tyron Woodley, who are all happen to be a couple wins away from truly earning a shot. So, if St-Pierre was ever to return, and if the UFC wanted to pull a blockbuster fight out of nowhere, what would be better than GSP riding into town to avenge the loss of his TriStar campmate?
There are two ways of looking at the magnificent UFC welterweight championship matchup between “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald on Saturday night.
Both were represented by visuals which went viral on social media, representing both sides of the coin in the aftermath of Lawler’s thrilling fifth-round finish of MacDonald at UFC 189.
The first was the Instagram photo of Lawler and MacDonald in the hospital together, battered, bruised and smiling. Not only do fights like Lawler-MacDonald represent the highest ideals of combat sports at its finest — elite skills, athleticism, and courage in the face of adversity — but the sense of sportsmanship and respect shine through.
That’s why hospital pictures of Lawler-MacDonald, like Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson before them, serve as validation of why we invest so much time and emotion in a sport which so often seems to pelt us with an endless stream of bad news.
Then, there’s the flip side, represented in the disturbing GIF of MacDonald which made the rounds. Taken in the split seconds after the fight’s stoppage, MacDonald, one of the toughest guys you’ll ever come across, is in a disoriented state, looking more like the victim of a street assault trying in vain to make sense of the situation than a professional athlete.
MacDonald absorbed the sort of beating, with damage that included a shattered nose and a broken foot, that makes you wonder if he’ll ever be able to return to the same level. Lawler, the victor, also looked worse for wear. You can’t help but wonder of this is MMA’s equivalent of Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward, thrilling battles which took years off both boxers’ careers.
“Robbie Lawler’s lip, if you could’ve been in the Octagon and saw this lip, he would talk and this part of the lip would move and the other part wouldn’t,” UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. “[MacDonald’s] nose was broken. They asked him, when Rory got out back, they said, ‘what year is it?’ He didn’t know what year it was. First of all, it was a war. And a complete display of chin, heart, grit, dogged determination, and the will to win from both guys. When you talk about (the best) fights ever, that’s what I’m talking about.”
The good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, they all blur together and somehow emerge as a cohesive whole in a truly transcendent fight, like Jones vs. Gustafsson, Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio Rua, Nick Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi, and on down the line, stand the test of time and serve as a reminder why we all started watching this crazy sport in the first place.
Lawler vs. MacDonald, with all its beauty and horror, belongs on MMA’s short list of greatest fights. That such an encounter took place in the greater context of one of the most eventful and most-watched evenings in the sport’s history only underscores the impact.
UFC 189 quotes
“It’s damn hard work. But every time I say, ‘you know what, f— this. Next time I’m not doing all of this.’ And then I get handed the check, and I’m like, ‘alright then, I’ll do it one more time.'” — Conor McGregor on his media obligations leading up to the fight.
“I’ve never disrespected the guy in my life. I like Jose Aldo very much, his wife, his family.” — Dana White, 24 hours after once again claiming Aldo did not have a broken rib.
“That elbow he threw to my face loosened me up. I figured that if I didn’t loosen up he was going to, so I knew it was time.” — Matt Brown, describing the series in which he answered a Tim Means standing elbow with a couple of his own, leading to a submission victory.
Up: Conor McGregor. Yes, I’m stating the obvious. So be it. McGregor entered the Octagon with as much pressure on his shoulders as any fighter who has stepped into the cage in the sport’s 22-year history. The hype had built to a crescendo, he carried an entire nation’s expectations on his shoulders, and after a too-long training camp and media grind, he had to face exactly the sort of opponent many thought his promoters had steered him away from, and do so on two weeks’ notice. To be certain, some of the questions about how McGregor can handle wrestlers remain. But never question his heart. Chad Mendes took McGregor into deep waters, and all McGregor needed was one opening, one chance to escape from a nightmare, and he made the most of it.
Up: Thomas Almeida. Every promising prospect must endure their trial by fire on their way up the ranks, that moment when a crafty vet dishes out everything the young’un can handle. Thomas Almeida found his dance partner Saturday in the venerable Brad “One Punch” Pickett. Pickett threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Brazilian bantamweight in the opening round, breaking his nose in the process. But Almeida answered the call in the second round with a Knockout of the Year contender of a flying knee. If the next-generation Chute Boxe standout goes on to become a legit championship contender, we’ll remember UFC 189 as a key moment in his development.
Up: Matt Brown. There were a long string of fighters who deserve plaudits in both victory and defeat at UFC 189, and it’s no accident we’re not giving out any “downs” after a night of such greatness. Since this piece would run far too long if we went into them all, let’s instead give a nod to the man who got the ball rolling. The last six bouts of UFC 189 were so great that it’s easy to forget most of the undercard snoozer-worthy. That was before Brown and Tim Means put on an exciting slugfest in the “prelim main event.” When Brown took offense to Means’ standing elbow, responded with a couple nasty elbows of his own, and then submitted Means in short order, he threw down the gauntlet, and the main-card fighters responded and created a legendary evening.
Up: Michelle Waterson. The former Invicta atomweight champion made a strong debut at Sunday night’s Ultimate Fighter 21 Finale, rallying from a jittery start and finishing Angela Magana in the third round. Waterson, who had one of the truly under-appreciated great fights of recent years in her Invicta title-winning performance against Jessica Penne, has all the tools to become a breakthrough strawweight star. And while she’s probably not yet ready for a UFC title shot, a bunch of intriguing fights, not the least of which would be a Penne rematch, await “The Karate Hottie.”
Hold: Cyborg Justino. Cyborg’s 45-second demolition of Faith Van Duin on Thursday night has become an all-too-familiar scene. The idea of Invicta importing someone you’ve never heard of for their featherweight champion to steamroll has run its course. Ronda Rousey holds all the cards and she’s only going to fight Justino at 135 pounds. So let’s go ahead and have Justino attempt to get down to 135 for her next Invicta fight. If it turns out she can’t make it, no harm, no foul. But it’s high time she at least tries.
Interesting calls
First things first: Those who were trying to claim that Herb Dean made a favorable call on the UFC’s behalf by waving off McGregor-Mendes with three seconds left in the second round, go put on a dunce cap and sit in the corner. The referee’s concern is for the safety of the fighters. The clock is irrelevant. Mendes took a ridiculous left hand, turtled, and wasn’t defending or answering. That’s a blueprint for stopping a fight. Whether it happened 10 seconds into the round, at the midpoint, with three seconds left, or with one (see the Cyborg Justino-Gina Carano fight from 2009 for a fight correctly waved off at 4:59), if the fight’s over, it’s over.
While we’re talking about referees, let’s also give a nod to John McCarthy. The veteran did a perfect job overseeing Lawler vs. MacDonald. The end of the third round was an example of when you let the fighter continue in a one-sided situation. MacDonald had Lawler hurt and poured it on, but Lawler was firing bombs and responsive right up until the final horn. The fact you barely even noticed McCarthy is a testament to his job well done.
Meanwhile, one thing that stuck out from the opening Fight Pass bout was the UFC’s new graphics package (minus the FS1 portion, which retained FOX’s regular graphic package). The look is clean and modern. Adding the names of the fighters competing to the screen, on either side of the clock, is helpful, particularly for undercard competitors without much name recognition. Getting their names out front and center should help them gain traction. All in all, the changes were a much-needed fresh coat of paint on a presentation which had gone stale.
Which isn’t to say there wasn’t one sour note. For whatever reason, the UFC took all the negative feedback it’s received over the years on the dated “Face the Pain” opening and decided to make it even more annoying, with a remixed version. At this point, one can only assume Stemm, a band which would otherwise be long forgotten, must have locked the UFC into some sort of unbreakable lifetime contract for the song’s usage on their pay-per-views.
Yeah, I’ll go there, and yeah, I know there isn’t much chance of this happening. Still … what’s next for Lawler after downing MacDonald? I’ll admit, this is the first time I’ve even seen one fighter beat another fighter twice, and yet still want to see them tangle for a third time. But realistically, MacDonald is going to be out awhile, and he took the sort of loss that would be better for him to take a tune-up fight before throwing him back at the wolves. Beyond that, you could make a case for the Johny Hendricks trilogy fight, for which there doesn’t seem much fan enthusiasm. The rest of the pack are quality fighters, from Brown to Carlos Condit to Tyron Woodley, who are all happen to be a couple wins away from truly earning a shot. So, if St-Pierre was ever to return, and if the UFC wanted to pull a blockbuster fight out of nowhere, what would be better than GSP riding into town to avenge the loss of his TriStar campmate?
