For a long time now, fans have wondered what is on the minds of professional fighters as they watch their peers compete in the cage.
Case in point: Josh Thomson watching Diego Sanchez battling with Gilbert Melendez.
Of course, fans of the sport know th…
For a long time now, fans have wondered what is on the minds of professional fighters as they watch their peers compete in the cage.
Case in point: Josh Thomson watching Diego Sanchez battling with Gilbert Melendez.
Of course, fans of the sport know that Thomson and Melendez know each other very well. How could they not after battling each other three times for a total of 75 minutes on three different occasions? Their first bout saw Thompson victorious, while the following two fights saw Melendez emerge the victor.
But very rarely do we get this kind of insider’s view on a fight. We get commentaries in movies from the directors, producers and actors, but rarely do we see it in the combative sports, where the drama and the blood are real.
It’s a rare treat to see a fighter react to the action in the cage as a fan. It’s an even rarer prize to see the fan give us the learned perspective of an actual fighter.
In watching Thomson view the bout between Sanchez and Melendez, we see that all pulses are quickened by such high-action combat. Thomson’s appreciation for the efforts of both Sanchez and Melendez speaks volumes for the passion professional fighters have for their life’s vocation.
Of course, a fight like Sanchez vs. Melendez speaks for itself; it was an easy pick for Fight of the Year for 2013, given the desperation and drama displayed over the full three rounds.
But to see a fighter like Thomson enjoy it in much the same way as we, the casual fans do, is a rare treat.
Watch and enjoy; his is an expert’s perspective, after all.
Bound by no god, even Zeus himself, Gilbert Melendez vs. Diego Sanchez produced instantaneous action.
Cast with iron fists and limitless barbarism, both lightweights flourished under the bright lights of UFC 166. They produced one of the most hellaciou…
Bound by no god, even Zeus himself, Gilbert Melendez vs. Diego Sanchez produced instantaneous action.
Cast with iron fists and limitless barbarism, both lightweights flourished under the bright lights of UFC 166. They produced one of the most hellacious battles in UFC history, which consequently overshadowed a main event featuring a storied heavyweight title trilogy.
With bloody chins and gritted teeth, each warrior tested the physical boundaries set forth by universal law some four billion years ago.
In a year stockpiled with memorable wars and carnivorous crusades, does the lightweight showdown take the crown for Fight of the Year?
In this writer’s eyes, abso-freaking-lutely.
Granted, their fight didn’t produce the level of athleticism and precision that other epic 2013 duels like Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson and Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks did. However, when you’re talking about harnessing pure heart and displaying undying determination, Melendez and Sanchez reign supreme.
For three straight rounds—15 minutes that will forever be cemented as a ferocious epoch of raw carnage—two lightweights left absolutely everything inside the Octagon. With skill sets turned over, training camps cast aside and game plans buried six feet under the canvas, “El Nino” and “The Dream” gave us a night of prolific perfection that our kids will be talking about when we’re old fogies eating Jello at the YMCA.
People may argue that it was more of a beating at the hands of a more complete and patient striker, but when you re-watch a collapsed Melendez try to regain his consciousness in the third round, it’s easy to see that Sanchez’s wild and unpredictable flurries paid off.
It’s a testament to crazy. Not the kind of unsteady mental corruption that often lands backyard wrestlers in the ER, but instead the kind of mindless menacing that keeps millions of onlooking fans screaming in waves of wonder.
So, you ask me if a five-round championship collision between two towering 205-pounders or a welterweight grudge match between two elite athletes stacks up to a measly lightweight meeting with no title implications whatsoever?
I say it’s not even close. It’s not even in the same category. That’s like comparing an old Cadillac that has seen the traversed blacktops of America to a brand new Ferrari that you occasionally show off to the neighbors.
In a sport that is and always will be about the purity and peaceful sublimity of fighting, there’s nothing better than a red-stained rodeo full of war-torn leather, cut eyebrows, busted bones and empty gas tanks.
Although he may have been on the sidelines for a while, Conor McGregor hasn’t been idle.
Taking to Twitter, the Irish fighter wasted no time in giving his opinion on the fighters in the featherweight division.
Granted, McGregor isn’t the fi…
Although he may have been on the sidelines for a while, Conor McGregor hasn’t been idle.
Taking to Twitter, the Irish fighter wasted no time in giving his opinion on the fighters in the featherweight division.
Granted, McGregor isn’t the first fighter to talk himself into the spotlight, but he may be one of the few so openly dismissive of an entire division, especially since he has just two fights under his belt in the UFC.
Chael Sonnen used his gift of the gab to promote his first fight with Anderson Silva, and since then he hasn’t taken his foot off the gas. Most recently, Sonnen managed to fan the flames of his rivalry with Wanderlei Silva to the point that he earned a coaching position on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil, opposite Silva.
But Sonnen had seven Octagon appearances under his belt before he fought “The Spider” for the first time, and he was ranked in the Top 5 of the division prior to UFC 117.
McGregor has two victories in the UFC, but neither opponent was in the Top 10.
And still, he tweeted his opinions of the featherweight division, earning the ire of Diego Sanchez. He wanted to get people to say his name, and he succeeded.
Soon, McGregor will be heading back into the cage to try to capitalize on the spotlight, but who should he fight? Being a UFC fighter means that you have to be ready to fight anyone the promotion throws your way, no matter who you’ve lobbied to face.
While some opponents are clearly out of his class in terms of what they have earned, there are other fighters out there, on the rise, who could make an exciting matchup with McGregor. These three men would not be sacrificing all that much in terms of ranking if paired against McGregor, and such a bout would certainly land somewhere on the main card of any UFC event.
Khabib Nurmagomedov
Although there is probably no bigger fan of Conor McGregor other than Conor McGregor, a bout with Khabib Nurmagomedov would be a huge test for him; a win could see him catapult himself into the Top 10 at 155, and a loss could be crushing.
It would be the kind of fight that separates the chaff from the wheat, as they say, and he would certainly be coming in as a big underdog. Still, with the claims McGregor has made about the fighters comprising the lighter divisions, it would give him ample opportunity to walk all his talk, and that seems to be exactly what he wants.
It’s interesting to think about how McGregor would deal with the dogged takedown attack of Nurmagomedov; could he keep stuffing those shots, time and time again and get the room needed to let his strikes fly? Or would he succumb to the pressure and get pounded out before the end of the final frame?
Finally, there is something about both men that speaks to the fact that when the going gets tough, they dig down deep. Both are hard-nosed fighters, and while Nurmagomedov is quickly gaining acclaim as a future title contender, McGregor has managed to finish 13 opponents, winning via decision only once.
A fight like this could raise both of their stocks if both men come out as hard and aggressive as their reputations suggest.
Dustin Poirier
Having been bestowed the title “peahead” by McGregor, Dustin Poirier has gone 2-2 in his last four fights and is just inside most Top 10 rankings at featherweight.
If he were to get a fight with McGregor, he could avenge the slight in person on the stage that matters most: the Octagon.
All the talk aside, Poirier and McGregor make an intriguing matchup; Poirier has six wins via submission on his record and, wrestling aside, would probably own the advantage on the ground.
He also has five wins via KO/TKO, which makes him just dangerous enough in a stand up fight to keep things interesting against the heavy handed McGregor.
With eight fights in the UFC under his belt, Poirier has faced some of the bigger names in the featherweight division, so a bout against McGregor wouldn’t make him shrink in the big lights. In Poirier, McGregor would have an opponent with a known name who is dangerous enough to keep the fight competitive without being overwhelming physically; a notable consideration given McGregor’s leg injury.
A win over Poirier would put McGregor in the Top 10.
Diego Sanchez
While neither man is currently ranked in the Top 10 at lightweight or featherweight, a fight with Diego Sanchez is still a very viable option for McGregor; especially as he has fought at lightweight before.
Both men have been engaged in a war of words on Twitter, and the stock of Sanchez is still high given his Fight of the Year candidate bout with Gilbert Melendez. But is McGregor ready for a fighter like Sanchez?
An edge in submissions would have to go to the Greg Jackson fighter, not to mention power and experience. While both fighters are durable, McGregor has yet to be tested in an all-out battle in the trenches; something Sanchez is all too familiar with.
Sanchez has been in bloody battles with Melendez, Martin Kampmann, Clay Guida and others; McGregor has not, but that could be part of his reasoning in calling out Sanchez.
With as many times as Sanchez has engaged in Fight of the Night contests, eventually it catches up to a fighter. If that happens in the cage with McGregor, the Irishman could end up looking very good.
Conversely, coming back from an injury usually brings with it ring rust, and a fight with an angry Sanchez is not the place to try to work the kinks out. It’s hard to put a price tag on experience, and Sanchez has been fighting in the UFC since before McGregor had first slipped on a pair of gloves.
So, how much would a win over Sanchez advance McGregor’s name? Even though Sanchez isn’t a Top 10 man, he’s incredibly well known as an action fighter; a win would probably see him make it into the rankings as the man who beat the man who almost beat Melendez.
That may not seem just, but fights like Sanchez-Melendez are worth their weight in gold and extend by way of association an elevation of status.
And if we know one thing about McGregor, it’s that he is all about the business of raising his star very high, even if he has to push it uphill.
(Sanchez’s contract is officially for eight more fights, but the UFC reserves the right to take him out behind the shed at any time and put him out of his misery. / Photo via Getty)
MMA contracts are unique among professional sports, in the sense that long-term agreements aren’t necessarily beneficial to the athletes. The deals that Cormier and Sanchez signed with the UFC bear absolutely no resemblance to the 15-year, $67.5 million dollar “lottery ticket” that NHL goalie Rick DiPietro signed in 2006. After failing to live up to expectations, DiPietro’s contract was bought out in 2013, at $1.5 million a year for the next 16 years.
That’s what a contract is, after all — an employer’s obligation to pay a certain amount of money for services rendered. What the UFC offers its fighters is something different. It’s like a contract, but not exactly, and it results from the uniquely lopsided power structure in this sport, where there’s essentially one major-league team and no player’s union.
In MMA if you fail to live up to expectations and lose fights, your contract can simply be terminated at any time, and for a variety of reasons. When Eddie Alvarez‘s contract was made public, outsiders got a chance to see the long list of scenarios in which the UFC can cut an athlete loose. As the article’s author Jonathan Snowden notes “So, all those UFC contracts that claim to be for eight or 10 fights? That’s only true if you keep winning. Otherwise, the contract is only as long as the UFC wants it to be.”
A quote from that article, from Northwestern University labor law professor Zev Eigen, shows how imbalanced contracts are for UFC fighters:
(Sanchez’s contract is officially for eight more fights, but the UFC reserves the right to take him out behind the shed at any time and put him out of his misery. / Photo via Getty)
MMA contracts are unique among professional sports, in the sense that long-term agreements aren’t necessarily beneficial to the athletes. The deals that Cormier and Sanchez signed with the UFC bear absolutely no resemblance to the 15-year, $67.5 million dollar “lottery ticket” that NHL goalie Rick DiPietro signed in 2006. After failing to live up to expectations, DiPietro’s contract was bought out in 2013, at $1.5 million a year for the next 16 years.
That’s what a contract is, after all — an employer’s obligation to pay a certain amount of money for services rendered. What the UFC offers its fighters is something different. It’s like a contract, but not exactly, and it results from the uniquely lopsided power structure in this sport, where there’s essentially one major-league team and no player’s union.
In MMA if you fail to live up to expectations and lose fights, your contract can simply be terminated at any time, and for a variety of reasons. When Eddie Alvarez‘s contract was made public, outsiders got a chance to see the long list of scenarios in which the UFC can cut an athlete loose. As the article’s author Jonathan Snowden notes “So, all those UFC contracts that claim to be for eight or 10 fights? That’s only true if you keep winning. Otherwise, the contract is only as long as the UFC wants it to be.”
A quote from that article, from Northwestern University labor law professor Zev Eigen, shows how imbalanced contracts are for UFC fighters:
“The term unilaterally benefits the employer with no reciprocal benefit to the fighter. It’s completely one-sided, completely unfair and seems to suggest that any term is a material term for purposes of the employer. Every breach could be a material breach for the fighter, but nothing is for the UFC.”
So when 38-year-old ex-champ Anderson Silva signs a 10-fight contract after his first loss in the company, we shouldn’t interpret it as a show of good faith or support from his bosses. That’s just the UFC saying, “We’ve got you until you decide to retire, and if you try to work for a competing promotion after you leave, we’ll sue you just like we sued Randy.”
But what if you keep winning all your fights? In that case, you are locked into the pay scale that you agreed to at the beginning of your contract. Presumably your market value will go up as you win fights and challenge for titles, but if your market value exceeds what you are currently getting paid, you can’t really capitalize on it. You can try to re-negotiate your contract, and maybe the UFC will agree to it. Or maybe Dana White will tell everyone about your ridiculous request and publicly trash you during one of his media scrums.
The value of having another high-paying organization in the MMA landscape like Bellator (or OneFC, apparently) is that you can use their offer to leverage a higher paying contract out of the UFC. However, if you are tied to a long-term deal, you can’t take advantage of it. As Cage Potato writer Brian D’Souza pointed out, if UFC fighters are tied up to long-term deals, “No other promoter can enter the big leagues of MMA unless they build their own stars or wait 3-4 years.” Having fighters sign long-term contracts is really only a benefit to the UFC, and it’s a massive benefit.
An eight-fight contract for Daniel Cormier, Diego Sanchez, or any other UFC fighter is not job security, even though it may sound like that to people who don’t follow the business of the sport. We’ve racked our brains trying to think of another professional entity with a similar employer/employee dynamic, and the closest example that comes to mind is the military, where they can give you a dishonorable discharge if you screw up, but you can’t just leave any time you want like a normal “at will” job.
That’s just something to keep in mind for all you MMA fighters out there. If the UFC offers you a long term contract, you’re not being hired — you’re enlisting.
Diego Sanchez wanted to keep things moving in the new year, and it didn’t take long for the the UFC to line him up something exciting.
On Wednesday the organization announced on UFC Tonight that the former title challenger had recently signed an eight-…
Diego Sanchez wanted to keep things moving in the new year, and it didn’t take long for the the UFC to line him up something exciting.
On Wednesday the organization announced on UFC Tonight that the former title challenger had recently signed an eight-fight and was looking to make his return to the Octagon at UFC 171 in Dallas. While a return on March 15 was speculated, there was no talk of who he could potentially face on that card, and questions swirled around which fighters “The Dream” would scrap it out with in his next showing.
Those questions were answered on Thursday when the UFC announced via Twitter that a fight between the 31-year-old Jackson’s MMA fighter and Myles Jury had been made official for UFC 171.
The lightweight scrap is the latest high-profile tilt to be announced as the Dallas card begins to take shape. The event will also feature a welterweight tilt between Hector Lombard and Jake Shields in addition to the championship main event where pound-for-pound great Jon Jones puts his light heavyweight strap on the line against Brazilian powerhouse Glover Teixeira.
The matchup between Sanchez and Jury will feature one of the division’s grittiest veterans against one of the brightest prospects at 155-pounds. The 25-year-old Team Alliance fighter has found victory in all 13 of his professional bouts, including all four of his showings under the UFC banner. Where his first three wins inside the Octagon garnered praise and acclaim, his most recent win over Tristar product Mike Ricci at UFC 165 in September was panned for its lack of excitement.
He won’t have to worry about that aspect of the fight when facing Sanchez because that element is almost a certainty any time the New Mexico native steps inside the cage. That was certainly the case in his most recent bout against Gilbert Melendez at UFC 166 back in October as the two Mexican-American lightweights put on a “Fight of the Year” worthy battle over the course of the 15-minute affair. Where Melendez’s hand was raised at the end of the fight, Sanchez’s performance certainly proved he’s back to his hard-charging, forward pressure-based style.
While the fireworks in Houston certainly put Sanchez back on the map in the highly competitive lightweight division, he will be entering the bout with Jury with his back against the wall. The veteran has lost two of his last three showings and can ill-afford another setback if he hopes to remain in the upper-tier of the division.
On the other side of the coin, Jury will come into the bout looking to keep his undefeated record intact. A victory over an established name like Sanchez would certainly bolster his stock in the lightweight picture.
(Hey guys, you forgot to write “In Memoriam” at the top. Photo via Jury’s official website.)
Myles Jury might be one of the most talented up-and-coming prospects in the UFC that I couldn’t pick out of a lineup if a police officer was holding a gun to my mother’s head. I don’t how or why that situation could arise, I’m just saying. The TUF 15 alum is currently 4-0 in the UFC with wins over fellow TUFers Michael Johnson, Mike Ricci, and Ramsey Nijem, but since he’s been stuck in FX/FS1 prelim hell for those fights, his accomplishments have gone largely unnoticed by the general public.
It’s a classic matchup of undefeated vs. mentally unstable undefeatable.
(Hey guys, you forgot to write “In Memoriam” at the top. Photo via Jury’s official website.)
Myles Jury might be one of the most talented up-and-coming prospects in the UFC that I couldn’t pick out of a lineup if a police officer was holding a gun to my mother’s head. I don’t how or why that situation could arise, I’m just saying. The TUF 15 alum is currently 4-0 in the UFC with wins over fellow TUFers Michael Johnson, Mike Ricci, and Ramsey Nijem, but since he’s been stuck in FX/FS1 prelim hell for those fights, his accomplishments have gone largely unnoticed by the general public.
It’s a classic matchup of undefeated vs. mentally unstable undefeatable.
Since dropping back to lightweight, Sanchez has gone 1-1, scoring a controversial split decision win over Takanori Gomi at UFC 161 before being upended by Gilbert Melendez at UFC 166 in a “Fight of the Year” contender. I say “contender,” because PRIDE. Sanchez also recently reupped with the organization and will likely continue putting on three-round wars until he is forced to be carted into the octagon, at which point he will still manage to stay above .500 on sheer willpower alone.
Seriously, I feel kind of bad for Myles here. He finally receives a shot in the real big time, and it comes at the cost of facing this fucking guy. It’d be like asking your boss for a raise in front of your entire office while naked and being pelted with cow pies. Diego Sanchez is Richard Simmons’ spirit animal. When monkeys are injected with RAGE-virus, they see Diego Sanchez, which is why I find it all the more brash that Conor McGregor has recently taken to mocking Sanchez on Twitter. It’s almost as if he isn’t aware that Sanchez has likely already purchased the plans to his home and begun installing Rube Goldbergian death traps in it while McGregor is sleeping.
You just don’t fuck with that kind of crazy, and I can only hope that Jury comes out of this alive. He seems like a nice kid with a very full life ahead of him. Even if that’s not the case, he’s simply too young to be trapped in a dry well with Greenskeepers playing on loop for the rest of his life.
Bound by no god, even Zeus himself, Gilbert Melendez vs. 
