Cyborg may have scored her first UFC title defense over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm at last weekend’s UFC 219, but she was made to unnecessarily suffer some unneeded insults at the hands of Holm’s Team JacksonWink. A photographer for the team named Marc Aragon made an Instagram post in the hours after the fight […]
Cyborg may have scored her first UFC title defense over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm at last weekend’s UFC 219, but she was made to unnecessarily suffer some unneeded insults at the hands of Holm’s Team JacksonWink.
A photographer for the team named Marc Aragon made an Instagram post in the hours after the fight which repeatedly called Cyborg a ‘dude’ and ‘he,’ making it seem like a serious case of sour grapes from a losing side. The post was later deleted.
Obviously it’s nothing new for Cyborg, who has been made the butt of gender-based jokes from former UFC athlete Angela Magana, whom Cyborg attacked at last year’s UFC Athlete Retreat after a long smear campaign online, and even Octagon commentator Joe Rogan, whose ill-advised genitalia joke about Cyborg in the aftermath of 2015’s UFC 193 drew much attention.
Understandably sick of it, Cyborg issued her own post on Instagram clarifying her views on the verbal assault, adding that Aragon should apologize for the insults or have his credentials to UFC events revoked:
Cyborg called Aragon’s insults ‘unacceptable’ and expressed desire for him to come clean on the transgender insults:
It is not acceptable for an official representative of @hollyholm@jacksonwink_mma to call me transgender following my Fight. Their official photographer was given a backstage credential to attend the @UFC and I expect an apology or their ability to get credentials for future UFC events to be affected by these actions. @ma2_media
As noted by MMA Fighting, Team JacksonWink has been deemed insensitive towards transgender issues before, with a Twitter account tweeting and deleting (again) a link to an old Instagram post that appeared to speak out against the controversial transgender bathroom laws:
Not surprisingly, the post got a mixed bag of reactions from the community that was similar to the polarizing, divided climate on many prominent, socially-relevant issues today.
In terms of fighting, Cyborg is justified in speaking out another tired instance of being made fun of for her appearance, because it’s clear that she’s one of the most talented and dominant fighters in the sport regardless of how she looks. As for JacksonWink, well, it’s simply not a good look for a highly-regarded team that is going through a disturbing streak of in-the-cage defeats.
A staff photographer for Jackson-Winklejohn MMA gym is in hot water after an Instagram post calling Cris “Cyborg” a man. The photographer, who was credentialed for UFC 219, is named Mark Aragon and his errant Instagram post has put the entire Jackson-Wink gym in quite a bad light. See the inflammatory post for yourself: Aragon’s […]
A staff photographer for Jackson-Winklejohn MMA gym is in hot water after an Instagram post calling Cris “Cyborg” a man.
The photographer, who was credentialed for UFC 219, is named Mark Aragon and his errant Instagram post has put the entire Jackson-Wink gym in quite a bad light.
See the inflammatory post for yourself:
Aragon’s official role within the camp is official video and media director as well as staff photographer. His post received immediate backlash and he eventually deleted it upon the indication of bad press.
Aragon has not yet responded to the post, but this isn’t the first time the Jackson-Wink gym has been in hot water for a social media disaster.
Someone from the camp liked a post that called UFC bantamweight Aljamain Sterling an “n-word”, which was the cause of much consternation.
This is disgraceful and comes not long after the gym's Twitter account liked a tweet calling Aljamain Sterling the n-word. Sounds like some house cleaning needs to be done in ABQ. https://t.co/Pz1Ot24Nn6
You know they say Donald Cerrone will fight anyone… The Jackson-Wink gym in Albuquerque, New Mexico is known as one of the most successful in modern mixed martial arts. Having trained such talents as former champions Holly Holm, Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, Andrei Arlovski, Frank Mir and Georges St-Pierre, Jackson’s has seen some of the best
You know they say Donald Cerrone will fight anyone…
The Jackson-Wink gym in Albuquerque, New Mexico is known as one of the most successful in modern mixed martial arts. Having trained such talents as former champions Holly Holm, Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, Andrei Arlovski, Frank Mir and Georges St-Pierre, Jackson’s has seen some of the best competition at the peak of their fighting careers pass through the doors and hit the mats. Former lightweight title contender and current UFC welterweight Donald Cerrone also spends his camps at Jackson-Wink, and has most recently been training UFC legend BJ Penn for his UFC 199 comeback.
With so many high calibre fighters, often competing in the same weight classes, partners in the gym have to face the reality of fighting each other soon enough Rashad Evans and Jon Jones had a massive feud, eventually leading to ‘Suga’ leaving the ABQ gym and joining the Blackzilians. Alisair Overeem recently knocked out Andrei Arlovski at UFC Rotterdam, but reports indicate both men will remain at Jackson-Wink. Two fighters you might not expect to have beef are ‘Cowboy’ and ‘Bones,’ but it happened according to Cerrone.
Speaking during a recent podcast episode of ‘Fighter and The Kid,’ the entertaining Donald Cerrone told a tale of a time he had beef with ex-UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. As transcribed by FOX Sports:
“Me and him have plenty of disputes all the time. We almost had at it, him and I at Jackson’s,” Cerrone said. “This is before all the wild Jon (stuff) came out and I spoke about him being wild and he was like ‘what the (expletive) with you putting me out like that?’ and I was like ‘what’s up mother (expletive)?’ but that’s behind the scenes.”
“What had happened was all the UFC cameras were there that day and I came at Jon like ‘what’s up?’ and he comes at me, puts his God hat on and got to work. He just said ‘Cowboy, I just don’t understand, I’m so nice to you, always try to help you and this is how you treat me, this is how you want to come at me? I remember pointing at him like ‘you mother (expletive)’.”
“Jon and I are cool now. We hang out and we’re over all that,” Cerrone said.
Comparing mixed martial arts to professional wrestling tends to draw the ire of many am MMA fan. While former WWE and UFC world champion Brock Lesnar eventually earned the respect of UFC fans by putting on dominant performances, he was originally greeted with a less than warm reception. Fellow former WWE world champion CM Punk signed with UFC to less than open arms and is expected to compete in his first MMA bout later this year (or early 2016). Pro wrestling and MMA also crossed paths once again last month, when UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey made a special appearance at Wrestlemania to help Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson run off Triple H and his wife Stephanie McMahon.
All of this interplay between pro wrestling and MMA lately got me thinking; How do some of MMA’s top teams compare to great pro wrestling stables of the past and present? MMA fans are well aware of Rousey’s “Four Horsewomen,” which consists of Rousey and her teammates Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and recent Invicta FC signee Marina Shafir. The group is big pro wrestling fans and while I’m personally not a fan of the name, they’ve wasted no time promoting themselves.
So which pro wrestling stables would I compare to current MMA teams? Here are a few of my suggestions…
Comparing mixed martial arts to professional wrestling tends to draw the ire of many am MMA fan. While former WWE and UFC world champion Brock Lesnar eventually earned the respect of UFC fans by putting on dominant performances, he was originally greeted with a less than warm reception. Fellow former WWE world champion CM Punk signed with UFC to less than open arms and is expected to compete in his first MMA bout later this year (or early 2016). Pro wrestling and MMA also crossed paths once again last month, when UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey made a special appearance at Wrestlemania to help Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson run off Triple H and his wife Stephanie McMahon.
All of this interplay between pro wrestling and MMA lately got me thinking; How do some of MMA’s top teams compare to great pro wrestling stables of the past and present? MMA fans are well aware of Rousey’s “Four Horsewomen,” which consists of Rousey and her teammates Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and recent Invicta FC signee Marina Shafir. The group is big pro wrestling fans and while I’m personally not a fan of the name, they’ve wasted no time promoting themselves.
So which pro wrestling stables would I compare to current MMA teams? Here are a few of my suggestions:
MMA: Team Jackson-Winkeljohn/Wrestling: New World Order (nWo) – TeamJackson-Winkeljohn in New Mexico is probably the most well-known team in all MMA, and at its peak, the nWo was the most famous wrestling stable of its time (and maybe of all time). The nWo was home at different times to such high-profile wrestling personalities like “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, X-Pac/Syxx and Sting. Meanwhile, Team Jackson-Winkeljohn has almost a who’s-who of MMA on its roster, including UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, Travis Browne, Carlos Condit, Diego Sanchez, Keith Jardine, John Dodson and Leonard Garcia.
Who at Jackson-Winkeljohn could play the roles of the nWo’s original trio: Hogan, Hall and Nash? If I had to venture a guess:
– Hulk Hogan = Jon Jones
– Scott Hall = Donald Cerrone
– Kevin Nash = Carlos Condit
MMA: American Kickboxing Academy/Wrestling: The Dangerous Alliance – American Kickboxing Academy boasts a roaster comparable to Team Jackson-Winkeljohn, including UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Josh Thomson. At its peak in WCW, the Dangerous Alliance consisted of “Ravishing” Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbysko, Arn Anderson and “Stunning” Steve Austin. While the group never boasted a world champion like AKA does with Velasquez, the Dangerous Alliance was among the greatest group of wrestling talent ever assembled – much like AKA is right up there among the best MMA teams from top to bottom.
MMA: Team Cesar Gracie (“The Scrap Pack”)/Wrestling: D-Generation X – The antics of D-Generation X are known and loved by pro wrestling fans worldwide. From its original iteration of Triple H and Shawn Michaels to the grouping of Triple H, X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws to going back to Triple H and Michaels in its final days, DX were rebels without a cause who loved to thumb their noses at authority.
Likewise, Team Cesar Gracie has its own pair of rebels in the Diaz brothers, Nick and Nate. The team also consists of Gilbert Melendez and Jake Shields, among others. The Diaz brothers have caused UFC president Dana White many a headache throughout their careers and fans love the brothers for their antics inside and outside the cage.
MMA: Team Alpha Male/Wrestling: The Filthy Animals – The Filthy Animals in WCW were one of the very few stables in all of pro wrestling to consist of cruiserweights, or “smaller” wrestlers – Billy Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera and Eddie Guerrero. Similarly, Team Alpha Male consists entirely of fighters from the UFC’s lighter weight classes – bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw, Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez, Chad Mendes and Danny Castillo. The Filthy Animals were thick as thieves during their WCW run, and Team Alpha Male is one of the more tight-knit teams in all of MMA.
MMA: Blackzilians/Wrestling: The Nexus – The Blackzilians are a fairly new team in MMA, coming together in 2011 and boasting talent including Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Anthony Johnson and Michael Johnson. The Nexus also took the pro wrestling world by storm in 2010 and included young talent like Wade Barrett, Ryan Reeves (Ryback), Justin Gabriel and David Otunga. The Nexus tangled with some of WWE’s biggest names, including John Cena and CM Punk, who both at one time were also members of Nexus – in Cena’s case, unwillingly. The Blackzilians have yet to taste gold, unlike the Nexus, but Anthony Johnson gets his chance to bring a belt to the team when he faces Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 187 in May.
Of course, I didn’t list some of the other famous teams in MMA, including American Top Team, Team Quest and Xtreme Couture. Conversely, there are wrestling stables I didn’t mention, such as the Four Horsemen, Nation of Domination, Ministry of Darkness or The Corporation. Agree or disagree with my comparisons? Have some of your own? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or drop me a line!
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