If you’ve been wondering why UFC 207 headliner Ronda Rousey has been ditching the mixed martial arts (MMA) media we may now have an answer. Rousey has a women’s bantamweight title bout with champion Amanda Nunes on Dec. 30. It’s protocol for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters to attend media events. This is especially true
If you’ve been wondering why UFC 207 headliner Ronda Rousey has been ditching the mixed martial arts (MMA) media we may now have an answer. Rousey has a women’s bantamweight title bout with champion Amanda Nunes on Dec. 30.
It’s protocol for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters to attend media events. This is especially true for headliners involved in title bouts. Unless you are considered a star, most of your appearances will be with the MMA media.
This hasn’t applied to “Rowdy” who has given MMA journalists the cold shoulder. A longformfrom ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne (via Bloody Elbow) revealed Rousey reached a bout agreement, which allowed her to limit her media appearances leading up to UFC 207.
Here is a quote from the report:
“In April 2015, the sport made headlines when another of its stars, McGregor, refused to attend a news conference. White responded by pulling him from the UFC 200 card.
Rousey watched it unfold from afar. When she saw McGregor a month later, at a Bud Light commercial taping in Las Vegas, she pulled him aside and offered some advice. ‘Instead of trying to handle everything at once, while it’s coming at you, just trying to reach an agreement beforehand,’ she told him.
Rousey did the same when she negotiated her terms for UFC 207. She would limit her publicity to a few high-profile interviews with people of her choosing, a day of filming at the gym in Glendale and a staredown with Nunes at UFC 205, a bout that McGregor would headline in New York in November.”
With a heavy emphasis on the return of Rousey over Nunes’ title defense, it’s clear the UFC is shooting for the mainstream crowd with this event. With Rousey nowhere to be found, the MMA media has been left with little to work with.
It’ll be interesting to see if Rousey interacts with the MMA media regardless of the result of her title bout.
The class action lawsuit filed against the UFC by Cung Le, Nate Quarry and Jon Fitch has dramatically polarized the MMA sphere. Instead of debating the merits of the case, many are debating whether the lawsuit has a right to exist.
Chael Sonnen has characterized the lawsuit as a “shakedown”; others say that the plaintiffs are just bitter ex-fighters who have an axe to grind. It’s bizarre that so many are acting as if these events suddenly crept up quietly to ambush the UFC—and it’s also a symptom of the poor job done by the MMA media in reporting business concepts in a way fans can understand them.
A “USEFUL IDIOT”
Last month, Chael Sonnen sounded off on Ariel Helwani on his podcast, saying “You’re not a journalist, you’re a parrot.” The message wasn’t coming from a warm, fuzzy place inside Sonnen’s heart—the Oregonian wrestler was irate at Helwani’s handling of the steroid scandal Sonnen had been embroiled in, which lead to Sonnen’s exit from MMA competition.
FrontRowBrian—a Twitter personality who has the ability to scoop news stories and rumors that the mainstream media either doesn’t know about or is too scared to touch—added his own insight into the Helwani-UFC relationship, which hit a snag when Helwani was reported to be on the outs at UFC partner FoxSports in January 2014.
With his typically cheerful ginger candor, FrontRowBrian tweeted (then later, deleted) that Helwani was a “useful idiot,” and said that the UFC had temporarily fired him because they “just wanted to show him who is the boss and how they can end a career.”
Ariel Helwani is an extreme case of someone with overt dependence on the UFC. Like many media members, he knows what the key issues are between MMA promoters and the fighters, but he makes a conscious effort to restrain himself from fully developing very specific ideas in his reporting.
For example, when Nate Diaz’s complaints about pay made headlines in April, Helwani wrote a very detailed article for MMAFighting.com outlining Diaz’s points, as well as a succinct reply from Dana White. Carefully omitted from the article is any analysis of the revenue Nate Diaz generates for the UFC versus what he’s paid.
The class action lawsuit filed against the UFC by Cung Le, Nate Quarry and Jon Fitch has dramatically polarized the MMA sphere. Instead of debating the merits of the case, many are debating whether the lawsuit has a right to exist.
Chael Sonnen has characterized the lawsuit as a “shakedown”; others say that the plaintiffs are just bitter ex-fighters who have an axe to grind. It’s bizarre that so many are acting as if these events suddenly crept up quietly to ambush the UFC—and it’s also a symptom of the poor job done by the MMA media in reporting business concepts in a way fans can understand them.
A “USEFUL IDIOT”
Last month, Chael Sonnen sounded off on Ariel Helwani on his podcast, saying “You’re not a journalist, you’re a parrot.” The message wasn’t coming from a warm, fuzzy place inside Sonnen’s heart—the Oregonian wrestler was irate at Helwani’s handling of the steroid scandal Sonnen had been embroiled in, which lead to Sonnen’s exit from MMA competition.
FrontRowBrian—a Twitter personality who has the ability to scoop news stories and rumors that the mainstream media either doesn’t know about or is too scared to touch—added his own insight into the Helwani-UFC relationship, which hit a snag when Helwani was reported to be on the outs at UFC partner FoxSports in January 2014.
With his typically cheerful ginger candor, FrontRowBrian tweeted (then later, deleted) that Helwani was a “useful idiot,” and said that the UFC had temporarily fired him because they “just wanted to show him who is the boss and how they can end a career.”
Ariel Helwani is an extreme case of someone with overt dependence on the UFC. Like many media members, he knows what the key issues are between MMA promoters and the fighters, but he makes a conscious effort to restrain himself from fully developing very specific ideas in his reporting.
For example, when Nate Diaz’s complaints about pay made headlines in April, Helwani wrote a very detailed article for MMAFighting.com outlining Diaz’s points, as well as a succinct reply from Dana White. Carefully omitted from the article is any analysis of the revenue Nate Diaz generates for the UFC versus what he’s paid.
Then again, as Yahoo! reporter Kevin Iole carefully explained in a February column on the subject of whether fighter pay is fair, “No one can say with certainty because we don’t really know what [fighters] earn or how much the UFC makes.”
It’s a terrific alibi for adhering to the status quo that MMA journalists can cling to the way Ariel Helwani can cling to his four consecutive “MMA Journalist of the Year” awards (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) as evidence that he’s a journalist.
JOURNALISTS IN GLASS HOUSES
The “Shill of the Year” award clearly goes to Kenny Rice, host of AXS TV show Inside MMA, for abruptly cutting short an interview with undefeated welterweight Ben Askren back in September.
“The UFC has had quite the monopoly the last handful of years, but really, if they don’t change their tune, they’re gonna start losing some fans,” opined Askren in response to a statement (question?) by Kenny Rice about the UFC housing the world’s best fighters.
Rice quickly halted the interview midstream, but his methods caused more damage than if he’d simply allowed Askren to finish. Fans everywhere were outraged over the incident and sounded off all over Twitter, discussion forums and comments sections.
“Honestly, I think a lot of people were kind of happy that someone was finally speaking the truth,” Askren later told MMAJunkie Radio, “all of a sudden I get cut off and I get censored – they’re really mad about that.”
When AXS TV producer Andrew Simon offered an apology, Askren requested that he be able to return to the show to debate the topic of MMA economics with Kenny Rice. No debate ever materialized, but as a consolation, Rice’s Inside MMA co-host Bas Rutten posted a 1,200-word Facebook rant full of disjointed, tangential thoughts that absolved Rice from responsibility (at least from his viewpoint).
In 2005, George Clooney directed Good Night, and Good Luck., a film about CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow challenging anti-communist fear monger Senator Joseph McCarthy through accurate—and courageous—reporting.
Murrow makes a speech in the movie that cuts right to the heart of today’s media culture of self-interested info-tainment: “Unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”
When Murrow and producer Fred Friendly attempt to cover a news story that evidences the arbitrary nature of the communist witch-hunt, key sponsors back out. Upper-management at CBS allows the controversial story to run, but in the end, the powers that be have their own ironclad rhetoric for paring down Murrow’s influence.
“Sixty Four Thousand Dollar Question brings in over $80,000 in sponsors and it costs a third of what you do,” chief executive of CBS William Paley tells Murrow and Friendly.
So what incentive is there for an MMA website to fund an investigative reporter like John S. Nash to write a detailed analysis of MMA contracts when they can get more bang for their buck commissioning a series of stories about the usual “he said/she said” clickbait floating around the blogosphere?
Not to mention the clear links between MMA promotions’ advertising dollars and certain news outlets, like the UFC’s relationship with USA Today/MMAJunkie, as reported on in Shill ‘Em All, Part 4. I was directed to senior vice president of USA Today Leagues and Properties Merrill Squires to answer questions about the “USA Today UFC Group.” Although I contacted him for comment 11 months ago, I am sure that it will only be a matter of time before he gets back to me.
Meanwhile, MMAJunkie.com has provided excellent analysis of the UFC lawsuit including a story about perennial opportunist Tito Ortiz declining to participate in the suit, as well as a must-read piece on Travis Browne’s manager John Fosco calling the plaintiffs “a bunch of wimps.”
Are these stories relevant to the nature of the lawsuit, or are they just disinformation being pumped out to influence public opinion? Perhaps Browne’s side-gig as a marketing rep for several UFC-approved sponsors deftly answers that question.
SHADOWS OF OURSELVES
The reality of the UFC lawsuit is that it is being led by a group of fighters who are removed from their primes. They didn’t have the mechanisms, information, organization or leadership to stand up for themselves at the apex of their careers when it would have had the most impact. There’s also the reality of getting sucked into the game of corporate politics—sacrificing dignity and rights today for the promise of a paycheck and advancement tomorrow.
MMA journalists are in a similar juxtaposition with respect to their careers—there are incentives to toe the party line. But every time a reporter bends to the promoter’s whims, they endear less respect and credibility. Eventually, no matter how compliant or obedient a reporter is, they can find themselves unemployed and forgotten.
In the last year, many prominent names in the industry—among them Mike Chiapetta, Joe Ferraro, Mike Straka and Jim Casey—have moved on from full-time jobs covering the sport. Many part-time writers are also seeing their budgets slashed, and thus being further marginalized or rendered irrelevant.
One well-known former MMA media member penned (and recently deleted) a poem with this sad verse:
I didn’t know I would end up here,
No family, no money, no career.
Two girls who look up to me,
And a shadow of who I used to be.
All I can say to the survivors still committed to working in the media is that you need to carefully consider your objectives and the impact of your work. How do you want to be remembered? Will you be remembered?
The clock is ticking. What you produce will be your only answer.
(The video is so shitty the embed code wouldn’t even work in our CMS. So instead here’s a link to the video and a picture of a bro-hug. / Photo via Getty.)
You know what’s bullshit?
When a website promises “full fight video highlights” and offers so much less than that.
Watch the video we linked above and tell us those headlines are accurate.
(The video is so shitty the embed code wouldn’t even work in our CMS. So instead here’s a link to the video and a picture of a bro-hug. / Photo via Getty.)
You know what’s bullshit?
When a website promises “full fight video highlights” and offers so much less than that.
Watch the video we linked above and tell us those headlines are accurate. Yeah they’re kind of accurate. Mark Hunt is in the video. Roy Nelson is in the video, too. There’s some face punching. Then some anchor is like “oh yeah and there was a knockout.” Umm, maybe SHOW US the knockout? Because if you don’t show us the end of the fight, it’s not really a video highlighting the “full fight,” is it? It’s a video without the most important part of the fight.
Look, we’re not upset about the SEO. We GET IT. As a mid-tier MMA blog that lacks press credentials, we understand the drive to generate clicks better than most. We’ve arguably done some questionable or sordid things for the almighty page view, but never anything quite this insulting. As we put it on Twitter last night, people crap on CagePotato for being sub-legit, but at least we never straight-up LIE to people.
The above headlines are pretty much lies.
Something like “Hunt vs. Nelson Full Fight Video Highlights: Not the Part You Care About, But Please Click Anyway,” would better describe the video in question.
We’d love to be rebellious show you the actual highlight of the fight via GIFs and Vines, but Zuffa’s lawyers are among our most avid readers. So instead we posted a link to the “full fight highlights” video at the top. It’s a video lacking the only part of the fight you really want to see: The knockout. You’ll have to order Fight Pass if you want to see the full thing. Or, you know, hunt down an illegal GIF somewhere on the Internet. I’m sure that’ll be really difficult to do…
Unless you’ve been trapped in your basement savoring celebrity nudes for the past few days, you can’t ignore the UFC vs. Bellator showdown this Friday night. Both MMA organizations are going head-to-head, and to make the pot even sweeter, both events take place in the not-so-glorious state of Connecticut.
Are Dana White and Scott Coker both there to lobby for MMA regulation in nearby New York, or petition for the return of the Hartford Whalers? No.
Not since Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson’s match of “Who Can Run Faster, You or Me” has the sporting world been on the edge of their seats for something of this magnitude. But first, a brief rundown of what’s been happening in each promotion.
Let’s begin with Bellator, the little-brother league that used to hold tournaments not only for its fighters to earn title shots, but also to give champions 14-month periods of rest between fights. Viacom, the mega broadcast company that currently pulls the strings, recently axed Bjorn Rebney from his presidential post for being a “dickrider,” and brought former Strikeforce mastermind Scott Coker into the fold to run this promotion before it runs itself into the ground. I mean, who else brought you the demise of Fedor Emilianenko, premiere women’s MMA battles, Frank Shamrock getting his arms broken by kicks, a post-fight brawl involving Californian gangs, and Gus “Call of the Century” Johnson?
As for the UFC, the promotion started out as an addictive source of violence after two casino heirs-turned-bodybuilders used their papa’s money to hire King Kong Bundy in a dress, and revolutionized the sport of MMA. Nowadays, UFC head honcho (and the sole reason why MMA exists) Dana White, has turned on the fans, media, and even fighters because nobody is watching the 2,034 shows his company puts on a year. Basically, it’s your fault that the UFC is watered down, and if you don’t like it, don’t watch it, but keep in mind, you’re a piece of trash for not watching and supporting fighters who are away from their families for six weeks. And fuck the media for telling you otherwise, because if they’re not with UFC, they have no business writing editorials or opinion columns that their employers pay them for.
So here we are on the eve of UFC Fight Night 50 (which really feels like 250) and Bellator 123 (which feels like 123, considering we have no idea what happened from 1 to 81). You have to pick one, and this writer is going to pretend that dual television sets, DVR, or sketchy Internet streams don’t exist. Which one is it going to be?
You bet your ass we’re watching Bellator…well, at least I am.
Unless you’ve been trapped in your basement savoring celebrity nudes for the past few days, you can’t ignore the UFC vs. Bellator showdown this Friday night. Both MMA organizations are going head-to-head, and to make the pot even sweeter, both events take place in the not-so-glorious state of Connecticut.
Are Dana White and Scott Coker both there to lobby for MMA regulation in nearby New York, or petition for the return of the Hartford Whalers? No.
Not since Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson’s match of “Who Can Run Faster, You or Me” has the sporting world been on the edge of their seats for something of this magnitude. But first, a brief rundown of what’s been happening in each promotion.
Let’s begin with Bellator, the little-brother league that used to hold tournaments not only for its fighters to earn title shots, but also to give champions 14-month periods of rest between fights. Viacom, the mega broadcast company that currently pulls the strings, recently axed Bjorn Rebney from his presidential post for being a “dickrider,” and brought former Strikeforce mastermind Scott Coker into the fold to run this promotion before it runs itself into the ground. I mean, who else brought you the demise of Fedor Emilianenko, premiere women’s MMA battles, Frank Shamrock getting his arms broken by kicks, a post-fight brawl involving Californian gangs, and Gus “Call of the Century” Johnson?
As for the UFC, the promotion started out as an addictive source of violence after two casino heirs-turned-bodybuilders used their papa’s money to hire King Kong Bundy in a dress, and revolutionized the sport of MMA. Nowadays, UFC head honcho (and the sole reason why MMA exists) Dana White, has turned on the fans, media, and even fighters because nobody is watching the 2,034 shows his company puts on a year. Basically, it’s your fault that the UFC is watered down, and if you don’t like it, don’t watch it, but keep in mind, you’re a piece of trash for not watching and supporting fighters who are away from their families for six weeks. And fuck the media for telling you otherwise, because if they’re not with UFC, they have no business writing editorials or opinion columns that their employers pay them for.
So here we are on the eve of UFC Fight Night 50 (which really feels like 250) and Bellator 123 (which feels like 123, considering we have no idea what happened from 1 to 81). You have to pick one, and this writer is going to pretend that dual television sets, DVR, or sketchy Internet streams don’t exist. Which one is it going to be?
You bet your ass we’re watching Bellator…well, at least I am.
You see, Bellator doesn’t really force me to watch its show; the broadcast is just there. After watching a Spike TV schedule of seven hours and realizing you’ve only seen three shows called Cops, Jail, and World’s Wildest Police Videos, it’s refreshing to see two guys who used to be really good fighters engage in a fight that if were food, would be the sloppiest of Joes. They even put on glorious title fights now and then.
On the other channel (which shows a high volume of Nascar and other crap) you’ve got the legendary Gegard Mousasi against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza battle in a middleweight rematch for the ages. You also have Alistair Overeem potentially ruining a man’s kidney or falling straight to hell after a tap to the chin, Matt Mitrione getting his brain shattered by THE BLACK BEAST, Call of Duty veteran Joe Lauzon going to war, and a bunch of preliminary fights that start right after your morning coffee.
Belltor’s counter-programming effort (because Lord knows THEY should be blamed for this coincidental booking) is another rematch involving Pat Curran vs. Patricio Pitbull for the featherweight title, “The Cheick Kongo Nut Shot” drinking game, the return of the sport’s only royalist, “King Mo,” and a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match featuring Bobby Lashley vs. ‘Merican Samoa Joe.
Look, man…I don’t know about you, but that’s far more tempting than hearing two blokes and a football panel go at it for four hours with an hour of scraps in between. UFC has become the brand Kurt Cobain couldn’t stand, or more so, Metallica after …And Justice For All. Inviting friends over to watch a UFC card basically turns into a sleepover an hour and a half in, shutting your eyes after you reminisce about the high school girls you’re contemplating liking on Tinder. It’s too freaking long, boring, and more importantly, you’re doing them a service by tuning in. In the end, all you get for it is backlash because you aren’t a real fight fan if you didn’t particularly enjoy what you just saw.
With Bellator, I know for a fact it’s going to be a total shit show; they go live from places I’d only stop for Burger King while on tour with my off-kilter punk-folk three-piece band, and truthfully, I have no idea what the process is to attend these fights. That’s what makes it so fun. It’s mysterious, and so goddamn trashy you’ll never stop loving it. Seriously, do the partisans even know where they are?
Also, they don’t bombard me with hours of programming that is deemed necessary viewing while I would love nothing more than to spend my evening in pajamas listening to my wife berate me while on the phone with her friend for two hours. Also, they’re not secretly trying to tell me that Tony Ferguson and Danny Castillo move the needle.
If we’re going to do our part to put an end to these slimy corporations stealing the sport we love, we have to fight for our cause. Do your part. We can’t change the world in a day, but eventually, we could rebuild Rome, where organized combat could or could not have first started.
UFC doesn’t care about you more than they do money. And if you’re not making them money — even if it’s a free card — then you’re not on board with the machine. How many UFC events have you watched on Fart Fight Pass wondering who in the hell was fighting? Do these motherfuckers care about mixed martial arts? They care about the growth of their own, and it’s happening at your own expense. If you seriously paid for UFC 177, close your computer, take a walk outside, and sit down in a park for three hours (minimum) to ask yourself what you want to do with your life.
Bellator doesn’t really give a nickel if you watch or not; it’s simply there. And if you’re on board, they’ll tell you it’s the greatest show on earth. The difference is, they say it followed by a smirk, and a big-ass swig of black label.
(Unfortunately, the catcalls directed towards Ms. Baker could not be heard that night, as they were drowned out by the deafening chirps of a thousand crickets. Photo via Getty.)
By Jared Jones (channeling Dana White’s inner rage)
Sure, maybe the card lost an Olympian, it’s original co-main event, and it’s main event at the last minute. And yeah, UFC 177 as a whole only contained two fighters ranked in the top 15 in their division, and only two of the 144 ranked fighters in all 9 divisions, but this card was worth every penny of the $54.99 it cost, you unappreciative fucks! CRITICIZING SOMETHING MEANS YOU HATE IT.
Let me ask you this, you insatiable, armchair expert, dickhead media members: If UFC 177 was so shitty, then surely the fighters salaries would reflect it, right? Well, read ’em and weep!
T.J. Dillashaw: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus) def. Joe Soto: $20,000
Tony Ferguson: $40,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus) def. Danny Castillo: $36,000
(Unfortunately, the catcalls directed towards Ms. Baker could not be heard that night, as they were drowned out by the deafening chirps of a thousand crickets. Photo via Getty.)
By Jared Jones (channeling Dana White’s inner rage)
Sure, maybe the card lost an Olympian, it’s original co-main event, and it’s main event at the last minute. And yeah, UFC 177 as a whole only contained two fighters ranked in the top 15 in their division, and only two of the 144 ranked fighters in all 9 divisions, but this card was worth every penny of the $54.99 it cost, you unappreciative fucks! CRITICIZING SOMETHING MEANS YOU HATE IT.
Let me ask you this, you insatiable, armchair expert, dickhead media members: If UFC 177 was so shitty, then surely the fighters salaries would reflect it, right? Well, read ‘em and weep!
T.J. Dillashaw: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus) def. Joe Soto: $20,000
Tony Ferguson: $40,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus) def. Danny Castillo: $36,000
You see that? Three — count ‘em, three — fighters on the card cleared over $40,000*! In one night! Shayna Baszler made nearly 10K, for Christ’s sake, and she fought in the co-co-main event! Do you know what you can do with ten thousand dollars? That’s enough to almost tip the dealer after a typical night at one of the casinos you *aren’t* banned from! Enough to purchase a black market kidney to replace the one you lost at Scores during that poker game with Michael Jordan! I bet you feel foolish now, MMA media dickheads, for saying that UFC 177 was a TUF Finale-level card comprised of C and D-level fighters at best.
Not that your opinions even matter, because if you had opinions, you wouldn’t be credentialed in the first place! It’s a perfect system!!
In conclusion: Anyone who bashes our product is a f*cking idiot or jealous of our success. There’s no such thing as oversaturation. PPV numbers are at an all time high. Tito Ortiz never existed.
Dana f*cking White out.
*Renan Barao didn’t make shit, though, because we’re trying to send a message that if you don’t fight, you don’t get paid. Unless you’re Stefan Struve.
Johny Hendricks has not fought since narrowly defeating Robbie Lawler to earn the welterweight title back at UFC 171. Chris Weidman has defended his middleweight title all of two times, via a broken leg TKO of Anderson Silva and a recent UD win over Lyoto Machida. That neither man has even come close to cleaning out their division has not deterred certain members of the MMA media, however, from proposing the idea of a “superfight” between the two at every possible opportunity.
To his credit, Dana White has rightfully shot down the notion of a Hendricks-Weidman superfight, stating on Inside MMA that “[Hendricks is] in a very nasty division packed with talent from No. 1 to No. 13. You have a lot of housework to do before you clean out the division and talk about Chris Weidman.”
I don’t even think that I’d entertain that. Not that he’s not good or anything like that, but it just doesn’t make any sense to talk about it now. [Hendricks] hasn’t defended his belt yet, and I have more people to fight in my weight class. On top of that, I would never call out a guy who’s smaller than me. I’m a lot bigger than him, I think. I know he walks around heavy but I’d feel like I’d have a huge advantage in that fight, so I’m not calling him out.
And thank science for that. Now if only we can finish this interview without entertaining another ridiculously premature superfight question…
(Horrendous photoshop or future UFC poster? The answer may surprise you…)
Johny Hendricks has not fought since narrowly defeating Robbie Lawler to earn the welterweight title back at UFC 171. Chris Weidman has defended his middleweight title all of two times, via a broken leg TKO of Anderson Silva and a recent UD win over Lyoto Machida. That neither man has even come close to cleaning out their division has not deterred certain members of the MMA media, however, from proposing the idea of a “superfight” between the two at every possible opportunity.
To his credit, Dana White has rightfully shot down the notion of a Hendricks-Weidman superfight, stating on Inside MMA that ”[Hendricks is] in a very nasty division packed with talent from No. 1 to No. 13. You have a lot of housework to do before you clean out the division and talk about Chris Weidman.”
I don’t even think that I’d entertain that. Not that he’s not good or anything like that, but it just doesn’t make any sense to talk about it now. [Hendricks] hasn’t defended his belt yet, and I have more people to fight in my weight class. On top of that, I would never call out a guy who’s smaller than me. I’m a lot bigger than him, I think. I know he walks around heavy but I’d feel like I’d have a huge advantage in that fight, so I’m not calling him out.
And thank science for that. Now if only we can finish this interview without entertaining another ridiculously premature superfight question…
Jon Jones is different. He’s taller than me, he’s bigger than me, so that’s a different story. That would be more of a test than Johny Hendricks.
God damn it.
Look, MMA media, I know that you are content to recycle the same five or so base-level questions during these interviews (“How’s your camp going? Who would you like to fight next? How would you rate your performance? What’s your perfect Sunday like?”) until the end of time, but enough with these superfight questions already. If Jon Jones vs. Anderson Silva taught us anything, it’s that the only matchups good enough to actually warrant the “superfight” moniker are never going to happen, whether due to contract issues, scheduling conflicts, or simply because one fighter doesn’t see the merit in moving up or down in weight for a non-title fight with few actual stakes on the line.
And not only that, but repeatedly forcing a superfight narrative where none such exists is pretty much the closest thing you can do to placing a curse on one of the fighters being discussed. You’re all but asking one of them to lose their next fight. It happened with Anderson, it happened with Fedor, etc. It’s the TUF coaches rule of excessive fight hype: For every word spoken about a potential juggernaut MMA fight, the likelihood that one of the two fighters will go down with an injury increases 10%. You don’t actually think that Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez are going to thrown down at the end of TUF 20, do you? Bad Tater! Bad! (*hits you with stick*)
So please, MMA media, let’s wait until our current UFC champions at least get a few title defenses under their belt before we call for a superfight. Or better yet, let’s wait until our champions can string together two straight defenses without having to undergo a surgery that benches them for the majority of a year. I know, cautious optimism…
