(Any time you need a security detail to do a live interview, you’re gonna have a bad time. / Props: UFC)
Since UFC featherweight Conor McGregor is in Rio this weekend to mean mug at Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes at UFC 179, the promotion decided to book him for a fan Q&A at the Maracanazinho Gymnasium. Yes, the UFC had an Irish superheel do a live show in front of a bunch of Brazilians who hate him, and yes, it was kind of a fiasco.
As Helwani summedit up: “This is like Andy Kaufman in Memphis. They hate him and he’s eating it up…Never experienced something like this. Basically every fan is coming to the mic to tell Conor how much they hate him.” Here are some highlights…
0:44: McGregor tells the crowd that the “Brazilian mamacitas” like his hair.
3:45: “It was your MOTHER.”
4:28: “The next time Jose steps into the Octagon after Saturday night, it will be to face me.” The crowd cheers, then starts chanting something that is either “Aldo” or a death threat.
6:49-7:13: One of the attendees goes on a rant that the translator doesn’t even try to pass along to McGregor, perhaps out of fear. Eventually, he huddles up with McGregor to give him the basic gist of what was said.
8:15: The guy is still talking. Paula Sack attempts to restore order. McGregor never responds to what was said and the next fan steps up to the mic.
(Any time you need a security detail to do a live interview, you’re gonna have a bad time. / Props: UFC)
Since UFC featherweight Conor McGregor is in Rio this weekend to mean mug at Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes at UFC 179, the promotion decided to book him for a fan Q&A at the Maracanazinho Gymnasium. Yes, the UFC had an Irish superheel do a live show in front of a bunch of Brazilians who hate him, and yes, it was kind of a fiasco.
As Helwani summedit up: “This is like Andy Kaufman in Memphis. They hate him and he’s eating it up…Never experienced something like this. Basically every fan is coming to the mic to tell Conor how much they hate him.” Here are some highlights…
0:44: McGregor tells the crowd that the “Brazilian mamacitas” like his hair.
3:45: “It was your MOTHER.”
4:28: “The next time Jose steps into the Octagon after Saturday night, it will be to face me.” The crowd cheers, then starts chanting something that is either “Aldo” or a death threat.
6:49-7:13: One of the attendees goes on a rant that the translator doesn’t even try to pass along to McGregor, perhaps out of fear. Eventually, he huddles up with McGregor to give him the basic gist of what was said.
8:15: The guy is still talking. Paula Sack attempts to restore order. McGregor never responds to what was said and the next fan steps up to the mic.
9:04: “Jose Aldo…oo, va moher!” The crowd laughs at McGregor’s pronunciation of their national slogan.
9:41: “No Brazilians will have a world title after I am done!” McGregor says, and the fan on the mic laughs and I think tells him to eat shit, maybe?
10:10: A guy with a broken arm leads his homeboys in another insulting chant. This is getting crazy.
11:03: “I speak TROOT. I don’t speak trash, I speak TROOT.”
11:13-11:37: Just watch the guy in the green shirt. Or rather, try not to watch him.
11:53: “Come down here and kiss my feet.”
12:58-13:09: Guy in the green shirt invents International Douchebag Sign Language.
15:44-15:51: Conor McGregor seems like a smart dude, but he also seems to think that they speak Spanish in Brazil.
You didn’t hear about Dana White’s latest announcement: An MMA-related Magic the Gathering set?
Well,there’s a reason you didn’t hear about it: It didn’t happen. Thankfully, one of our favorite past times is figuring out what products should needlessly be merged with our MMA obsession. A few days ago, we arrived at Magic the Gathering (MTG for short). We played the addictive card game back in high school. We wondered what a set of MTG that spans the entire MMA world might look like. The below cards–featuring the likes of Dana White, Conor McGregor, Greg Jackson, as well as several “MMA memes”–are the result of our mental meandering.
A few notes: We haven’t played Magic in about 10 years so some of the gameplay semantics might not be totally accurate. Also, some of the abilities are for the purposes of chiding MMA as only irreverent CagePotato can. All real photos in the cards come from Getty Images, save for the photo of “Minowaman” Ikuhisa Minowa, which comes from Sherdog. Another card’s image comes from a YouTube screen capture (you’ll know which one).
With that, here are the cards. We hope you enjoy them:
You didn’t hear about Dana White’s latest announcement: An MMA-related Magic the Gathering set?
Well, there’s a reason you didn’t hear about it: It didn’t happen.
Nae bother, one of our favorite past times is figuring out what products should needlessly be merged with our MMA obsession. A few days ago, we arrived at Magic the Gathering (MTG for short). We played the addictive card game back in high school. We wondered what a set of MTG that spans the entire MMA world might look like. The below cards–featuring the likes of Dana White, Conor McGregor, Greg Jackson, as well as several “MMA memes”–are the result of our mental meandering.
A few notes: We haven’t played Magic in about 10 years so some of the gameplay semantics might not be totally accurate. Also, some of the abilities are for the purposes of chiding MMA as only irreverent CagePotato can. Nearly all “real” photos in the cards come from Getty Images, save for the photo of “Minowaman” Ikuhisa Minowa, which comes from Sherdog.
With that, here are the cards. We hope you enjoy them:
The competition is over: We found Canada’s greatest UFC fan, and it’s not the supermark who got “UFC Halifax” tattooed on his arm. It’s the big-timer shown above, who spent the entirety of UFC Fight Night 54 dancing his doughy white ass off. My favorite bit comes around the 1:23 mark, where you can see that 1) His fellow Canadians are very supportive of his passion, and 2) yes, there is a sleeping child in the building, which makes sense considering how boring the card was. Also, 2:13-2:18…somebody get me a GIF of that, pronto.
The competition is over: We found Canada’s greatest UFC fan, and it’s not the supermark who got “UFC Halifax” tattooed on his arm. It’s the big-timer shown above, who spent the entirety of UFC Fight Night 54 dancing his doughy white ass off. My favorite bit comes around the 1:23 mark, where you can see that 1) His fellow Canadians are very supportive of his passion, and 2) yes, there is a sleeping child in the building, which makes sense considering how boring the card was. Also, 2:13-2:18…somebody get me a GIF of that, pronto.
Bellator 120 is a day away, but the MMA world doesn’t seem to care…unless of course they’re deriding the Viacom-owned promotion’s PPV endeavors.
People like laughing at Bellator. That goes for both fans and media. MMAJunkie’s Ben Fowlkes noted this phenomenon recently:
You make a fair point about the undercurrent of glee in the response to every new Bellator setback. It reminds me of the late IFL CEO Jay Larkin, who, when convening a conference call to essentially sound the death knell for that organization, bitterly remarked that it seemed to be the most interest the MMA media had ever shown in an IFL announcement. In other words, it’s not just Bellator feeling that sting. As much as MMA seems to recognize the need for a serious competitor to the UFC, it also seems to love to watch those contenders rise and fall. I’m not sure I know why that is, but I do know that, if you are one of those contenders, you don’t help the situation by complaining about it.
So I’m not alone in this; it’s clear that anti-Bellator sentiment is pervasive. But why?
Regarding fans, the sport and the sport’s chief brand—the UFC—are typically conflated. Most casual fans don’t know that MMA and the UFC are two different things. If it’s not UFC, it’s nothing; they’ll believe anything the UFC tells them without question. The UFC’s ability to produce stars might be lacking, but they’re as good at producing ideologues as they ever were.
However, this doesn’t answer why the hardcore fans hate Bellator. Hardcores often have an anti-UFC slant (they’re still mad about Pride and Strikeforce). So it seems only natural they’d be big Bellator supporters, especially since Bellator’s tournament structure purportedly reduces title shot chicanery that the UFC is infamous for. Except it doesn’t. They screwed Attila Vegh because he wasn’t profitable enough. They engineered the season 10 light heavyweight tournament for the most favorable outcome (King Mo vs. Rampage). Bellator went from providing something novel and refreshing to being a second-rate UFC clone. And let’s not even mention pushing an ancient, injury prone Tito Ortiz and a past-his-prime, embarrassingly disinterested Rampage Jackson as superstars.
(“Ay dog, just give it to me straight — am I the father or not?” / Photo via ora.tv)
Bellator 120 is a day away, but the MMA world doesn’t seem to care…unless of course they’re deriding the Viacom-owned promotion’s PPV endeavors.
People like laughing at Bellator. That goes for both fans and media. MMAJunkie’s Ben Fowlkes noted this phenomenon recently:
You make a fair point about the undercurrent of glee in the response to every new Bellator setback. It reminds me of the late IFL CEO Jay Larkin, who, when convening a conference call to essentially sound the death knell for that organization, bitterly remarked that it seemed to be the most interest the MMA media had ever shown in an IFL announcement. In other words, it’s not just Bellator feeling that sting. As much as MMA seems to recognize the need for a serious competitor to the UFC, it also seems to love to watch those contenders rise and fall. I’m not sure I know why that is, but I do know that, if you are one of those contenders, you don’t help the situation by complaining about it.
So I’m not alone in this; it’s clear that anti-Bellator sentiment is pervasive. But why?
Regarding fans, the sport and the sport’s chief brand—the UFC—are typically conflated. Most casual fans don’t know that MMA and the UFC are two different things. If it’s not UFC, it’s nothing; they’ll believe anything the UFC tells them without question. The UFC’s ability to produce stars might be lacking, but they’re as good at producing ideologues as they ever were.
However, this doesn’t answer why the hardcore fans hate Bellator. Hardcores often have an anti-UFC slant (they’re still mad about Pride and Strikeforce). So it seems only natural they’d be big Bellator supporters, especially since Bellator’s tournament structure purportedly reduces title shot chicanery that the UFC is infamous for. Except it doesn’t. They screwed Attila Vegh because he wasn’t profitable enough. They engineered the season 10 light heavyweight tournament for the most favorable outcome (King Mo vs. Rampage). Bellator went from providing something novel and refreshing to being a second-rate UFC clone. And let’s not even mention pushing an ancient, injury prone Tito Ortiz and a past-his-prime, embarrassingly disinterested Rampage Jackson as superstars.
Fans who don’t know that “UFC” and “MMA” are two different things will always hate the #2 promotion. Meanwhile, nuanced fans (the kinds of people who read CagePotato and spend loads of time on r/MMA) will want the #2 promotion to do something other than attempt to out-UFC the UFC.
But the fans aren’t the only guilty ones. Bellator’s failures elicit weapons-grade snark from MMA media members. MMAFighting’s Luke Thomas speculated as to why on his live chat series earlier this week.
“I think there are some guys in media either cognizantly or just buy accident…who are just gonna have a UFC bias,” he said in response to a lengthy comment about the MMA media’s coverage of Bellator. “I think there are some guys who are openly biased towards UFC and I think there are some guys who are just naturally gonna be drawn that way, naturally drawn to a space where because [the UFC] is so powerful and because so much of their attention is derived around it and because it becomes almost a chore in some ways to cover Bellator they don’t give it proper attention.”
Thomas elaborated further:
“There’s limits about what you can cover and what you can’t cover. And the reality is, with some exception, You have to cover things because it’s journalistically important, and we do. We give every Bellator show coverage…In terms of the return on the investment, insofar as you want to look at it that way, most Bellator shows do not do a tremendous amount of traffic. In terms of allocating resources to cover something, which you have to look at the bottom line, it becomes an issue.”
He’s right, at least as far as return on investment goes. I’ve been with CagePotato for about a year now (and writing about MMA for three years), and I’m typically the one who does Bellator recaps on the site. Regarding the page views on them, let’s just say if page views directly correlate to PPV buys, Bellator 120 will not succeed. Bellator articles are almost always underwhelming traffic-wise. The exceptions are usually the negative articles (their first PPV cancellation, Eddie Alvarez’s recent concussion), or when you’re directly comparing them to the UFC. Still, we cover Bellator shows because we’re an MMA site and not a UFC PR machine like other outlets.
America loves to praise a winner, but enjoys mocking a loser just as much. While we laugh at Bellator sometimes too, that doesn’t mean we don’t recognize Bellator’s importance in the MMA landscape, even when we write/tweet negative things about it. MMA is better off with a strong #2 promotion than without one. Just look at the Gilbert Melendez situation. Bellator’s existence allowed him to make more money. Keep that in mind next time you turn your snark up to 11 or buy into the anti-Bellator hype. They might make a lot of dumb decisions, but the MMA ecosystem benefits from Bellator, shady behaviors notwithstanding.
(“Unlike our competitors, Bellator will never rely on cheap subliminal persuasion gimmicks. Either you want to watch this deliciously stacked, top-heavy fight card or you don’t.” / Photo via MMAJunkie)
Food is the most underrated, undiscussed aspect of MMA fandom. Watching other people fight requires constant sustenance. The calories you burn shadowboxing with your shirt off during commercials don’t replenish themselves, you know.
As with other aspects of the sport, eating at a high level requires loads of nuance—more than many fans are aware of. We’re experts on the topic, though, so we figured we’d drop a little knowledge today.
First off, you should only eat certain kinds of food. I missed the Donald Cerrone punch that nearly KO’d Edson Barboza because I was cutting a chimichanga. The lesson learned? Do not eat food requiring too much attention.
Food is to enhance your MMA viewing, not replace it. The food makes the event festive, but is not the festivity in and of itself, like Thanksgiving turkey. The chimichanga I ate was delicious, but cumbersome and unwieldy. I had to spend time looking down—away from the computer and television—to cut it into a more manageable size. Even then, I had to be extremely careful when lifting it into my mouth with a fork. I didn’t want chicken, cheese, refried beans, and other greasy goodness spilling onto my keyboard.
Which reminds me, if you’re going to be live-tweeting or live-blogging a fight card, you can’t eat something that makes your fingers gross and sticky. That means no ribs, and no burgers that are dripping with ketchup or other condiments. I thought Cool Ranch Doritos Tacos might be safe one Bellator event, only to find that the Cool Ranch dust was all over my fingertips. My jokes were seconds late—an eternity on twitter—and the CagePotato twitter lost out on precious engagement statistics.
An additional thing to consider: Never eat something that will give you diarrhea. I can’t stress that enough. You don’t want to spend $60 on a PPV just to wind up giving the bathroom a new paint job and missing all the in-cage action.
So what foods are safe?
(Gobbling down buffalo wings = UFC on FOX. Being excited about iceberg lettuce = watching Fight Pass GIFs on a late-’90s Toshiba Satellite.)
Food is the most underrated, undiscussed aspect of MMA fandom. Watching other people fight requires constant sustenance. The calories you burn shadowboxing with your shirt off during commercials don’t replenish themselves, you know.
As with other aspects of the sport, eating at a high level requires loads of nuance—more than many fans are aware of. We’re experts on the topic, though, so we figured we’d drop a little knowledge today.
First off, you should only eat certain kinds of food. I missed the Donald Cerrone punch that nearly KO’d Edson Barboza because I was cutting a chimichanga. The lesson learned? Do not eat food requiring too much attention.
Food is to enhance your MMA viewing, not replace it. The food makes the event festive, but is not the festivity in and of itself, like Thanksgiving turkey. The chimichanga I ate was delicious, but cumbersome and unwieldy. I had to spend time looking down—away from the computer and television—to cut it into a more manageable size. Even then, I had to be extremely careful when lifting it into my mouth with a fork. I didn’t want chicken, cheese, refried beans, and other greasy goodness spilling onto my keyboard.
Which reminds me, if you’re going to be live-tweeting or live-blogging a fight card, you can’t eat something that makes your fingers gross and sticky. That means no ribs, and no burgers that are dripping with ketchup or other condiments. I thought Cool Ranch Doritos Tacos might be safe one Bellator event, only to find that the Cool Ranch dust was all over my fingertips. My jokes were seconds late—an eternity on twitter—and the CagePotato twitter lost out on precious engagement statistics.
An additional thing to consider: Never eat something that will give you diarrhea. I can’t stress that enough. You don’t want to spend $60 on a PPV just to wind up giving the bathroom a new paint job and missing all the in-cage action.
So what foods are safe?
We at CagePotato prefer simple sandwiches from local reputable delicatessens. A turkey sandwich with pepper jack cheese can be eaten while you look forwards at the TV screen. Pizza is alright too, though if your “ristorante” uses sauce that’s a little too acidic, you might find yourself with heart burn or indigestion while you watch the fights. Chinese? It depends. We’re not partial to anything that requires consistent looking down. If you’re eating chicken and broccoli, you have to keep looking down to put some on your fork. The more times you look down, the more likely it is you’ll miss something spectacular. Burgers can be alright so long as they’re not big and messy, though we’re not terribly partial to them. If you’re a skilled burger eater though, maybe you could give them a shot.
But we’ve only just scratched the surface. There’s still another layer of analysis and thought that must go into your choice of MMA food: What kind of card are you watching?
In the early days of MMA, you could splurge when a PPV came around because they were an event rather than a nuisance. In 2014, when oversaturation has plagued the sport to the point where the UFC holds two cards in the same day, you can’t splurge. You must consider your options carefully, and purchase food according to the level of what you’re watching. We’ve separated it into tiers.
Fight Pass Exclusive Card: DiGiorno, Tombstone, or Red Barron frozen pizzas. Yes, Fight Pass cards are usually this bad.
UFC on FOX Sports 2 Card: Dominoes, Papa John’s, Little Caesar’s, or other cardboard but still fun pizzas. Subway for sandwiches. McDonald’s or any of the usual suspects if you insist on burgers.
UFC on FOX Sports 1 Card: Five Guys, Smash Burger, or any other “real” burger chain. The “real” pizza place that sucks but stays in business because they deliver and the good pizza place doesn’t. If you’re going to deploy Chinese food, do it on a card like this. Go to the deli but get a standard sandwich lacking grandeur.
PPV with a garbage-ass main card: Save your fucking money and don’t buy any special or fun food to celebrate. Maybe get some ice cream if there’s a parlor near you and the weather permits it. Don’t spend extra cash on toppings unless you’re bringing six figures to the bank every year.
PPV with a worthy main card: Splurge. Experiment. Do whatever the hell you want. Maybe get a specialty sandwich at the deli that you normally wouldn’t get. Maybe try some Mexican takeout so long as it’s not too complicated to eat or will make you crap. It’s rare enough to have a great PPV these days, so go wild but please try to stay within the above guidelines to optimize enjoyment of the UFC PPV.
I was reminded of something on Sunday night. Not only that I haven’t been to church in decades, but also that it can really hurt to be a fan of a specific fighter. I felt a sense of anger, sadness, and frustration when Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was knocked out by Dan Henderson. I haven’t felt that in years, not since June 26th, 2010, when Fedor Emelianenko suffered his real first loss. That night, I realized it may be better to be a fan of the sport of MMA, and not of individuals. Don’t get me wrong, I still have my favorites, but I try to look at every fight objectively and analytically.
It’s difficult not to put feelings and emotions into a fighter’s performance, because fighting is such an emotional sport. Fighters can’t always win, and don’t compete often. If seeing your favorite guy or gal win makes you happy, and watching them lose makes you sad, you could be in for one hell of a roller-coaster ride.
Being a fan of a fighter is not like being a hockey fan. The Red Wings can lose 15 games in a row and they could still go on a winning streak and make it to the playoffs. No big deal, they have a chance one or two times every week to start over. Not so much in this sport.
I was reminded of something on Sunday night. Not only that I haven’t been to church in decades, but also that it can really hurt to be a fan of a specific fighter. I felt a sense of anger, sadness, and frustration when Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was knocked out by Dan Henderson. I haven’t felt that in years, not since June 26th, 2010, when Fedor Emelianenko suffered his real first loss. That night, I realized it may be better to be a fan of the sport of MMA, and not of individuals. Don’t get me wrong, I still have my favorites, but I try to look at every fight objectively and analytically.
It’s difficult not to put feelings and emotions into a fighter’s performance, because fighting is such an emotional sport. Fighters can’t always win, and don’t compete often. If seeing your favorite guy or gal win makes you happy, and watching them lose makes you sad, you could be in for one hell of a roller-coaster ride.
Being a fan of a fighter is not like being a hockey fan. The Red Wings can lose 15 games in a row and they could still go on a winning streak and make it to the playoffs. No big deal, they have a chance one or two times every week to start over. Not so much in this sport.
If a fighter loses a few in a row, he may have to find a new promotion to fight for, or a new career altogether. So if you place any kind of emotional stake in your favorite fighters winning every time they stare down an opponent, you will be let down quite often. To me, it just doesn’t seem like a wise emotional investment to make. I thought that I had that behind me, but I guess not.
I expected Shogun to win his rematch with Henderson on Sunday, despite the closely contested slugfest they had over two years ago. Dan was coming off of three losses in a row, and I felt Mauricio had the upper hand. He is over a decade younger, is coming off of a knockout win and is a technically superior striker. For two rounds, he nearly proved me right, but seeing him lose the way he did, and in a fight I felt he should have won was devastating.
I suppose I should completely detach myself emotionally from all fights, undeterred by any opinions or preferences I may have. That, or I can let myself enjoy the emotional roller-coaster that goes along with being a fan — let it lift my spirits on the way up, and crash to the bottom as it always does. Ultimately, MMA still has the ability to make me feel, even if those feelings aren’t always pleasant. And that’s not a bad thing, is it?
