Tag: JacksonWink

Miesha Tate Goes Off On Donald Cerrone vs. JacksonWink

Miesha Tate sounded off on the Donald Cerrone/JacksonWink drama.

The post Miesha Tate Goes Off On Donald Cerrone vs. JacksonWink appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

This week, the MMA world was beset by a surprising drama between UFC vet Donald Cerrone and his longtime gym JacksonWink MMA. Now it’s time Miesha Tate goes off on the bitter feud.

The drama fixated on a disagreement centered on the direction of the gym. Cerrone said he wanted the Albuquerque, NM-based MMA mecca to remain true to helping top fighters. He thinks the team’s decreased win percentage is a testament to how they’ve fallen.

But JacksonWink co-owner Mike Winkeljohn soon responded. His stance focused on his idea that ‘Cowboy’ is only about himself and could not be more narcissistic. It’s created a heated debate in MMA circles due to the personal nature of the conflict.

A Top Name Supports Cerrone

Some have sided with ‘Cowboy,’ others with one of the sport’s top gyms. A prominent name who sided with the former is former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate. Tate opened up on the situation on Sirius XM Fight Nation’s MMA Tonight (via MMA Fighting), noting that JacksonWink has been in this precarious spot before:

“This is reminiscent,” Tate said. “I feel like we’ve heard this story about this camp before when it was Rashad Evans and him feeling like he was pushed out of the spot with Jon Jones coming in.

“What I think is not cool, if it had been someone that had been training there like Carlos Condit or someone like that who had been training there a long time and they were gonna fight each other and both had that mutual respect, and mutual foundation at that gym, that’s different. But when the new guy is coming in and he’s like, ‘I wanna fight Cowboy’ and he comes to Cowboy’s gym, I think that the right thing to do by the gym – I think there’s some loyalty that should be towards Cowboy. He’s been there a really, really long time.”

Loyalty In Question

Much of the beef between Cerrone and JacksonWink centers around ‘Cowboy’s’ upcoming UFC Denver opponent Mike Perry. “Platinum” was fixated on fighting Cerrone as he began training at JacksonWink. Cerrone wasn’t happy about that.

Tate believes the gym should have been more loyal to their longtime flagship member. She suggested they should not have accepted Perry into their fold right before he fought Cerrone:

“‘This is probably not the camp for you to come in, Mike, because you’re fighting our boy. Cowboy has been with us forever. We’d love for you to come in for the next camp but Cowboy’s our dude,’” Tate said. “That’s how I think. Even though I know Cowboy doesn’t drive there every single day, he doesn’t train at the gym – there are some other reasons I think behind that, I think – that’s just me. That’s how I hope my gym would operate if I was under those circumstances.”

The drama has boiled over into many different perspectives. Longtime JacksonWink MMA fighter Diego Sanchez supported the gym. Perry promised he would send Cerrone to a ‘beautiful death’ when they fought.

The discord is quickly becoming personal as it takes over MMA headlines for this week. Where do you stand with this heated faceoff?

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Donald Cerrone Reacts To Cyborg Incident At JacksonWink

After UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg’s hard-fought win over Holly Holm in the main event of UFC 219 last Saturday, the MMA world was thrust into controversy when a social media staff member and photographer at Holm’s longtime gym JacksonWink MMA posted a seething series of gender-based insults towards Cyborg. The photographer, whose name […]

The post Donald Cerrone Reacts To Cyborg Incident At JacksonWink appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

After UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg’s hard-fought win over Holly Holm in the main event of UFC 219 last Saturday, the MMA world was thrust into controversy when a social media staff member and photographer at Holm’s longtime gym JacksonWink MMA posted a seething series of gender-based insults towards Cyborg.

The photographer, whose name is Marc Aragon, has since had his credentials revoked by the promotion despite an apology Cyborg accepted. With the normally elite JacksonWink team on a downward slide in the cage as of late, the bad look was simply a mess the team didn’t need at the time – or ever.

And apparently at least one fighter isn’t happy about the bad publicity it lent the respected camp. On a three-fight losing streak himself, longtime JacksonWink face Donald Cerrone recently weighed in on the controversy on “UFC Unfiltered,” claiming that Aragon simply should not have posted what he did as a representative of the gym:

“I know (Cyborg), but regardless of who it was – like if somebody wants to go say that, do it on your own time,” Cerrone said. “You’re not the (expletive) media person for one of the largest MMA schools in the country and then (expletive) start talking like a total (expletive) jackass, you know what I mean? That was my take off that.”

There’s no doubt that Aragon made the team look bad, and it was to the point where no amount of non-apologizing was going to make them look good in this spot even if Aragon and the team’s Facebook claimed Cyborg called Holm a derogatory term after the fight herself, prompting the immature and hasty response.

As for ‘Cowboy,’ he’ll look to get off his recent slide against surging welterweight Yancy Medeiros in the main event of February 18’s UFC Fight Night 126.

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UFC Revokes JacksonWink Photographer’s Credentials For Cyborg Insults

The gender-based insults made by a JacksonWink social media staff member and photographer towards UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg have cost him his credentials to attend UFC events. Following a highly-publicized backlash after an incendiary Instagram post where he called Cyborg a ‘dude’ and ‘he’ multiple times, Cyborg responded and understandably demanded an apology before […]

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The gender-based insults made by a JacksonWink social media staff member and photographer towards UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg have cost him his credentials to attend UFC events.

Following a highly-publicized backlash after an incendiary Instagram post where he called Cyborg a ‘dude’ and ‘he’ multiple times, Cyborg responded and understandably demanded an apology before JacksonWink MMA issued their own strange kind of non-apology statement that attempted to explain their side of the story.

Regardless, the incident was an extremely bad look for the losing team, so much so that the UFC announced in a statement today (via MMA Fighting) that photographer Marc Aragon had his ability to cover UFC events revoked:

“UFC is aware and troubled with the recent statements made by a social media representative from the JacksonWink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico as it concerns women’s featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg.

“UFC does not condone or tolerate the remarks that were used. The organization has reached out to the JacksonWink team to inform them that the individual in question will not be granted access for future events.”

Aragon later granted Cyborg’s request for an apology, issuing the following in a very lengthy Instagram post explaining his side in great detail:

“That being said I am embarrassed by my actions and I sincerely apologize to @criscyborg and her friends, fans, and most importantly her family for posting such an ugly misrepresentation of a great hard earned championship retention. I also want to apologize to the members of team Jacksonwink who were effected by that insincere post.”

You can check out Aragon’s full post here:

As the most hated photographer in the world today, I feel its necessary to comment on the recent fall out I’m causing for both Hollys and Cyborgs camps, and their respectful friends, fans, and families. At the conclusion of UFC 219, I took the final bus out of the arena back to the hotel and ended up on the same bus as Chris Cyborg and her team. As I sat in the back I began to hear them cheer and revel in their victory and discuss small parts of the event. A couple things really bothered me. I heard them laughing and commenting on a picture that renowned photographer Esther Lin took of Cyborgs toes literally in Hollys eye from a kick. Cyborg then went on to discuss how during clinches “the bitch” just “stayed and hugged her but she did nothing”. When I got back to the hotel I posted a picture with an inappropriate caption that everyone is now talking about. I was obviously acting out of anger and frustration. My personal emotions got in the way of my professional status which I failed to adhere to. But there is more to it, Cyborg leading up to the fight through her own Social Media accounts accused Holly and our camp of being the most drug failed camp ever. This is a totally fabricated lie and can’t be based on any merit whatsoever. Only one CURRENT athlete from our camp has ever been punished for USADA related issues and I was extremely frustrated with the perception that Cyborg and her fans had painted us as cheaters and losers.  Jackson Wink had over 60 UFC fights throughout the world and hundreds of other fighters fighting all around the world at many different organizations. Every fighter has their home team based out of whatever country or state they hail from and come here for training, some of them with their own teams. We absolutely can’t be responsible for each and every one of their daily activities. That being said I am embarrassed by my actions and I sincerely apologize to @criscyborg riscyborg and her friends, fans, and most importantly her family for posting such an ugly misrepresentation of a great hard earned championship retention. I also want to apologize to the members of team Jacksonwink who were effected by that insincere post.

A post shared by Mark A. Aragon (@ma2_media) on

Cyborg accepted Aragon’s apology, but also stuck to the initial request for him to have his credentials to cover UFC events taken away, and it appears her employers listened to her.

With new(ish) UFC owners Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG) looking to make the dominant Brazilian woman one of their headlining acts, public comments like these obviously aren’t going to fly from a pure image-based stance, no matter how many names Cyborg may have called Holm backstage or in the cage.

Aragon’s apology is to be commended – he came clean about it all and admitted he was wrong and expressed remorse for his actions, which is more than we can say about many who make a mistake – yet his explanation of the reasoning for his outburst is still flimsy, and to hear both he and the entire JacksonWink team remain focused on a purely different set of supposed insults from Cyborg just makes it look like they may not really be all that sorry.

To make sure, the UFC clearly wanted to nip any potential problems in the bud, and they did just that.

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