Tag: Opinion

Luke Rockhold Wins but Stays in Middleweight Shadows

Last June, Luke Rockhold defended the UFC middleweight championship against Michael Bisping.
Bisping, a seasoned veteran who had never even earned a title shot, took the fight against Rockhold on late notice. Bisping was an afterthought. A placeholder …

Last June, Luke Rockhold defended the UFC middleweight championship against Michael Bisping.

Bisping, a seasoned veteran who had never even earned a title shot, took the fight against Rockhold on late notice. Bisping was an afterthought. A placeholder for Rockhold to beat while he waited for other, more deserving contenders.

Of course, mixed martial arts is a weird and unpredictable thing. Bisping beat Rockhold from pillar to post, stripping the belt from Rockhold’s clutches. It was one of those improbable upsets that mixed martial arts sometimes throws your way just to keep you from getting too comfortable.

In the 15 months since that night, Rockhold has stewed. He’s grown bitter, and who can blame him? Bisping, never a portrait of sportsmanship or class, has taunted Rockhold from afar. Perhaps Rockhold began to feel what some of us felt: that Bisping would rather retire as champion than face Rockhold again.

Bisping is still champion. He faces former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in November at Madison Square Garden. And, truth be told, Rockhold may be no closer to the rematch he desperately wants than he was before Saturday night. But now, at least he put a scratch back in the win column.

Rockhold’s second-round TKO win over David Branch was nothing to write home about. Branch, the former World Series of Fighting two-division champion, stepped in the Octagon riding an 11-fight winning streak. His career can be summarized in two easy parts: There was the David Branch who washed out of the UFC on his first go-round, and then there’s the new David Branch who went out and found himself and became the best middleweight on Earth not fighting in the UFC.

This fight against Rockhold was a reckoning for Branch. It was a chance to prove he belonged, that his career rebound was the real deal and not just the end result of facing lesser competition.

And in the first round, Branch looked well on his way to doing just that. Rockhold looked sluggish. All of the things he used to do better than anyone, well, he just didn’t do them quite as well. And Branch caught him with a few solid punches, solid enough that it was easy (in the moment) to see a big-time upset unfolding before our eyes.

But Rockhold survived, and then came the second round, and then came the old Luke Rockhold. The one who is an absolute destroyer of souls on the ground. He scored a takedown, quickly shifted into mount, and before long there he was, on Branch’s back, punching the helpless New York native until the referee stepped in. Rockhold stood and started walking away but continued glowering at Branch on the ground.

If you thought a win over a tough opponent was enough to satiate the festering wound in Rockhold’s soul, you’re wrong.

After the fight, Rockhold took the opportunity to send a message to St-Pierre.

“You better get out of this thing while you still can. You better back out,” Rockhold. “Don’t embarrass yourself GSP. Just back out.”

It was a case of Rockhold attempting to use his moment on the microphone to will into existence the future he desperately wants. Rockhold has always been something of an entitled athlete; that’s the sort of thing that comes along with growing up with money, good looks and superb athletic traits. And it’s always better to use that microphone time to say what you want, rather than take the path of so many others and let Jon Anik know you’ll fight whoever the UFC puts in front of you.

Still, as much as Rockhold may imagine himself deserving of jumping the line, it’s laughable to imagine the UFC choosing him as an injury replacement should St-Pierre pull out of the Bisping fight. Weidman is coming off a fantastic win over a top middleweight in Kelvin Gastelum, and more importantly, Weidman is a local New York boy. The UFC does a lot of dumb things, but picking the rich California surfer over the Long Island kid at Madison Square Garden? Yeah. That won’t happen.

And besides, what was true a year ago is true today. Bisping won’t fight Rockhold. He’ll retire before he ever gives Rockhold the rematch. In fact, I’d be surprised if the St-Pierre fight isn’t Bisping’s curtain call in mixed martial arts.

So Rockhold will go on being unhappy. He’ll scowl and glower over a loss that he won’t get to revenge.

Which, come to think of it, might be a real bad thing for the rest of the UFC’s middleweight division.

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Behold Mike Perry, the UFC’s Unlikeliest Rising Star

Mike Perry indulges his violent side.
He’s finished three of four UFC opponents viciously.
He’s boxed professionally.
He’s been to jail.
It is absolutely not up for debate that when it’s time to fall back on life’s baser, more primal instincts, Perry i…

Mike Perry indulges his violent side.

He’s finished three of four UFC opponents viciously.

He’s boxed professionally.

He’s been to jail.

It is absolutely not up for debate that when it’s time to fall back on life’s baser, more primal instincts, Perry is capable.

It’s not a pleasant reality, but neither is fighting in a cage for money. The whole sport of MMA is based on a spartan existence, fighting in the gym for a chance to fight in front of the public for a chance to maybe fight for a world title.

It can be mean and nasty and ugly.

That’s what has come to make Perry the UFC’s unlikeliest rising star: He embodies those traits. He runs to them and not from them. And somewhere deep within, those traits and the ability to run to them instead of from them is what every MMA fan is looking see in a fighter, for better or worse.

Irrespective of how his approach and persona may make one’s skin crawl, Perry is a fighter.

Emblazoned with a gaudy face tattoo and screaming like a wild man come weigh-in, Perry brings out the worst in himself—arguably in MMA—and makes no apology for it. He comes intent with violence, on making you out-violent him if you’re ever going to have a hope against him, and most people aren’t capable of that.

Perry faces Alex Reyes at UFC Fight Night 116 in Pittsburgh on Saturday. The welterweight has a 10-1 record, with all his wins coming via knockout, and is coming off a Performance of the Night performance in April over Jake Ellenberger.  

It’s that reality that draws people to his fights. As Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden so aptly stated earlier this year, Perry is problematic but also electrifying:

Every sports fan has athletes that belong to them, proprietary favorites who make the drudgery of sports something more than a grind. There are hundreds of televised mixed martial arts bouts a year. Many of them are staggeringly dull, talented athletes doing little more than leaning against each other against a fence, animated it seems by all the urgency of an employee slowly walking back from a smoke break.

In the face of that ubiquity we need something, someone to embrace. It’s what makes you leap from your seat, celebrating a magical moment like you were part of it, not a mere spectator. So why not Mike Perry, an angry YouTube comment brought to life?

That personification of the worst things you’ve ever seen in YouTube comments was made for the belligerence of mixed martial arts. While many of the best of modern times are true athletes who dazzle with skill and slickness, there is still a seediness to it all at the core.

Perry meets those athletes with a ferocity they’ve never seen on a wrestling mat or in a jiu-jitsu tournament, and he leaves them with their toes pointing toward the ceiling when he does. That resonates, because it’s a unique human being who is capable of tapping into that part of his or herself and unleashing it so willingly.

For most MMA is a game, an engagement of high-stakes problem-solving in real time. For Perry, it’s much closer to prison-rules basketball—without the basketball.

It’s hard to account for someone like that and it’s hard to deal with them—for foes and fans alike. But it’s also compelling, and it’s why even the smiliest fighters beef with Perry while even the most skeptical fans will watch him.

Therein lies the irresistibility of Perry’s push into stardom. It almost feels unquestionable that he will continue to be successful in the cage and continue to get more attention as a result. 

He’s the unlikeliest rising star in the promotion, the inverse of everything you’d want selling the UFC brand, a despicable doppelganger of every fresh face the promotion photographs in a Reebok Fight Kit, but he’s a rising star nonetheless.

Woe be unto the man who tries to take that away from him, because sometimes the meanest and nastiest and ugliest are the ones to get the furthest.

        

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder!

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Fire-Breathing Luke Rockhold Looks to Reassert Himself as Top UFC Middleweight

Now that Luke Rockhold is finally set to return to the Octagon on Saturday in the main event of UFC Fight Night 116, you think it’s possible the disgruntled former middleweight champ might tone things down a bit?
Yeah, good luck with that.
Nobody has t…

Now that Luke Rockhold is finally set to return to the Octagon on Saturday in the main event of UFC Fight Night 116, you think it’s possible the disgruntled former middleweight champ might tone things down a bit?

Yeah, good luck with that.

Nobody has taken the 185-pound weight class’s recent slowdown as personally as Rockhold. As he prepares to meet former two-division World Series of Fighting champ Dave Branch at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Rockhold is still breathing fire about it in interviews (NSFW quotes ahead).

“I’m f–king tired of waiting,” Rockhold said during a recent appearance on MMAjunkie Radio, via Junkie’s Stephen Marrocco. “I’m not f–king around. I’m tired of this s–t. I’m tired of talking about it. I’m coming with a vengeance.”

The object of Rockhold’s ire, of course, is the ongoing logjam atop the division he once briefly ruled. Since the 32-year-old American Kickboxing Academy product conceded his title to Michael Bisping via stunning first-round knockout at UFC 199 in June 2016, all things concerning the championship have slowed to a crawl.

Bisping has defended the title just once since toppling Rockhold, and it was against 46-year-old Dan Henderson at UFC 204 in October of last year. Bisping won the fight via unanimous decision, but he then cast the division into suspended animation while he courted an on-again, off-again matchup against Georges St-Pierre.

With St-Pierre saying he needed until at least this October to get ready and Bisping opting for knee surgery, matchmakers had little choice but to put an interim title on Robert Whittaker following his win over Yoel Romero at UFC 213 in July.

A once-vibrant crop of contenders that featured Romero, Jacare Souza and Chris Weidman has thinned considerably since then. It used to be that you could make the argument that middleweight was as deep and interesting as any division in the UFC. Now people are talking about beefed-up welterweight Kelvin Gastelum as a potential title contender if he gets past 42-year-old Anderson Silva on November 25.

Meanwhile, Rockhold spent the last 15 months steadfastly trying to convince his bosses that he had other options.

During his extended sabbatical in the wake of the Bisping loss, Rockhold signed with the same modeling agency that represents UFC fighter Alan Jouban and actor Channing Tatum. When he wasn’t proposing a general strike among his fellow 185-pound fighters, he was showing up cageside with pop star Demi Lovato.

The message was clear: Life was good. Rockhold was in no hurry to return to the Octagon.

“I’m not coming back after all this time and fighting some chump on a worthless card,” he told Ariel Helwani during an appearance on The MMA Hour in June. “I’m coming back in style and making some noise.”

That sentiment makes the Branch booking an interesting one.

UFC Fight Night 116 may not be “worthless” in Rockhold’s estimation, but it certainly doesn’t qualify as a noisemaker. On its face, it’s enough to make you wonder if Rockhold was just posturing in his demands for something bigger or if his fallback career opportunities didn’t turn out to be as lucrative as he’d hoped.

Then there’s Branch himself, who rolls into this bout on a 13-1 tear since a loss to Rousimar Palhares ended his first stint in the UFC in March 2011. While spending the next five years competing in smaller organizations, Branch became that rare fighter who actually improved his standing in the sport without the promotional oomph of the UFC behind him.

He returned to MMA‘s biggest stage in May and won a split decision over highly touted Polish fighter Krzysztof Jotko.

All that means the MMA world is still very much in the process of figuring out how good this revamped version of Branch really is. Right now, he could be a pushover opponent for Rockhold in his comeback fight, a deceptively tough but unheralded stumbling block or something in between.

Which is it? We won’t know until Saturday night.

Nonetheless, Rockhold says a victory over Branch (which he implies is already in the bag) shouldn’t just put him back on the short list of contenders for Bisping’s belt—it should allow him to leapfrog St-Pierre.

“I think Georges St-Pierre is a joke,” Rockhold said on MMAjunkie Radio. “I still don’t have faith that Georges makes it to the fight, so we’ll see what happens.”

Given the sudden lack of other viable contenders for either of the UFC’s two middleweight champions—Bisping and Whittaker—now would be an opportune time for Rockhold to reassert his position near the top.

A win over Branch would make him the most obvious next opponent for Bisping, provided the brash Brit beats GSP. If St-Pierre wins the title or if Bisping’s belt somehow remains stuck in the mud, it’s conceivable Rockhold could next take on Whittaker instead.

Whatever happens, the only sure bet is Rockhold won’t be happy about it.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Can Henry Cejudo’s Conor McGregor Impression Be Good Enough to Win a UFC Title?

Henry Cejudo looked like a new man in the cage Saturday at UFC 215.
No, seriously, he looked like a different person—like a miniature, right-handed Conor McGregor.
Cejudo certainly had some surprises cooked up for Wilson Reis in their flyweight c…

Henry Cejudo looked like a new man in the cage Saturday at UFC 215.

No, seriously, he looked like a different person—like a miniature, right-handed Conor McGregor.

Cejudo certainly had some surprises cooked up for Wilson Reis in their flyweight contender fight at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The former Olympic wrestler adopted the distinctive wide-open, karate stance and pawing lead hand from McGregor’s trademark offense and battered Reis en route to a second-round TKO victory.

The performance was so impressive that it single-handedly revitalized Cejudo’s championship aspirations after back-to-back losses to titlist Demetrious Johnson and perennial world No. 2 Joseph Benavidez in 2016.

If Cejudo has finally harnessed his considerable athleticism and become a fully realized MMA fighter, there’s no telling how high he might fly.

But is it possible he could ride his dead-on Conor McGregor impression all the way to the 125-pound title?

He seems to think so.

“I know I’m the one to beat Demetrious Johnson,” Cejudo said at the UFC 215 post-fight press conference. “No disrespect to these fighters, no disrespect to any of them…but I believe I have the style to eventually beat him, and I truly do believe that.”

Obviously, serious discussion of anybody beating Johnson can’t be taken up lightly. The longtime flyweight kingpin was on the verge of breaking Anderson Silva’s record for consecutive UFC title defenses at UFC 215 before his scheduled bout against Ray Borg was scratched just before the weigh-ins.

It’s probably a stretch to think that Cejudo might be ready to rematch Johnson immediately, after the champion finished him via first-round TKO at UFC 197 a bit more than a year ago. It’d probably be prudent to see if his newfound striking prowess holds up over at least one more fight.

Even Cejudo agrees he doesn’t want to rush into anything. He said at the press conference:

“Emotionally, I do want to fight him right away. Technically, am I going to be ready for this guy? I don’t want to just fight Demetrious; I want to beat him. He’s been on my mind since he beat me. I’m a competitor, man. To get stopped in front of 20,000 people, that hurts. I think about it a lot. There’s a reason why he’s the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. That’s who I have to beat. Not just fight—beat.”

Even if it takes another fight or two to retake No. 1 contender status, however, Cejudo certainly picked an interesting time to reassert himself in the flyweight division.

The 125-pound title picture feels wide-open after the Johnson-Borg cancelation.

Mighty Mouse is trying to get that matchup rebooked for UFC 216 in Las Vegas October 7, but that’s not a sure thing. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Sergio Pettis lurks as a potential future No. 1 contender and Johnson has already discussed his desire to entertain bantamweights Cody Garbrandt or TJ Dillashaw after he has Silva’s title defense record in hand.

In a weight class this relatively shallow, it’s almost certain that Cejudo eventually ends up getting another chance to become champion—especially if his performances continue looking so McGregor-esque.

The sudden similarities between him and the UFC’s superstar lightweight champion were so noticeable, McGregor’s longtime coach, John Kavanagh, couldn’t resist having a little fun with it on Twitter:

The new style was undeniably successful for Cejudo against Reis. He controlled the distance well, using an obvious speed advantage to sting the 32-year-old Brazilian with right hands while using his left to swat away Reis’ jab much the same way McGregor does with his right.

With just over a minute left in the first round, Cejudo stunned Reis with a high kick and a left-right punching combo. A few seconds later, he dropped Reis with a straight right and as the Brazilian scrambled back to his feet, Cejudo hit him with a thudding leg kick and a series of knees from the clinch.

Cejudo then closed out the round with a takedown, effectively diversifying his attack with a dizzying array of techniques. Reis managed to survive until the bell, but Cejudo opened the second by dropping him with another straight right and pouring on strikes until the referee called things off just 26 seconds into the stanza.

It was Cejudo’s first stoppage victory in seven fights in the Octagon, and the results were no accident.

He said in advance of this fight that he went to Brazil to train with Bellator MMA fighters Patricky and Patricio Freire and told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in the cage that he “brought back a little of that karate stuff.”

As a guy who understands the promotional side of the sport, Cejudo also notes that for the 125-pound weight class to shake its low-profile position in the UFC landscape, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few more stoppages.

“We need fights like this,” Cejudo said after the Reis fight, via the Edmonton Sun‘s Robert Tychkowski. “We need knockouts in the flyweight division. I hit hard; I’m a little tank.”

Of course, looking like Conor McGregor in a fight against Reis and doing it in a potential fight against Johnson are two very different tricks. After Saturday night’s finish, Cejudo strode to the side of the cage to have words with reigning flyweight champ, who was sitting ringside after his own bout was called off.

“I just gave him a thumbs-up,” Cejudo told Rogan, when asked what he’d said to Johnson. “I said he’s the champ for a reason. It was just fun and games, man, but I do want to fight him [again] eventually someday, for sure.”

Maybe we shouldn’t have that fight tomorrow, but if Cejudo can continue to grow and improve in MMA, it should be one we all have circled on our calendars for the future.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 215: Resurgent Rafael dos Anjos Puts Welterweight Division on Notice

After 2016 saw him drop his lightweight title and be summarily written out of the 155-pound title picture by back-to-back losses, Rafael dos Anjos looks reborn at welterweight.
That was the takeaway from Dos Anjos’ impressive first-round submission win…

After 2016 saw him drop his lightweight title and be summarily written out of the 155-pound title picture by back-to-back losses, Rafael dos Anjos looks reborn at welterweight.

That was the takeaway from Dos Anjos’ impressive first-round submission win over Neil Magny on Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 215. The victory gave the 32-year-old Brazilian two in a row at 170 pounds and abruptly put the top contenders in his newfound division on notice.

Now that Dos Anjos no longer has to nearly kill himself making weight, he’s back to being bad, bad news.

“I was struggling so much to make weight [at lightweight],” Dos Anjos told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in the cage after the fight. “I want to see my kids grow. I want to see my grandkids. That’s why I decided to move up.”

With a dearth of fresh title contenders for welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, it’s possible Dos Anjos might find himself filling that void without much further ado.

He entered this fight at No. 10 on the UFC’s official 170-pound rankings, following a unanimous-decision win over former Strikeforce welterweight champion Tarec Saffidine in his divisional debut in June. After effortlessly dispatching the sixth-ranked Magny, it’s a good bet he’ll be knocking on the door of the top five when the next batch of rankings are released.

The 30-year-old Magny entered fresh on the heels of a victory over former champ Johny Hendricks at UFC 207, but Dos Anjos made short work of him on this night at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Dos Anjos rendered Magny’s significant height and reach advantages null when he scooped the Brooklyn, New York native off his feet with a powerful low kick in the early going. From there, Dos Anjos presented a clinic on how to use top position to work for a finish.

He moved from half guard to mount with an ease befitting his status as a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt. On the way, he threatened with a guillotine choke and pestered Magny with a series of elbows and a wicked knee to the gut.

As Magny tried to reposition himself to avoid Dos Anjos’ elbows, the former champion locked up an arm-triangle choke and slid back to the side. Magny couldn’t fight it off for long and tapped out with just three minutes, 43 seconds gone in the first round.

Call it a return to form for Dos Anjos, who went 10-1 between 2012-15 and won the 155-pound title from Anthony Pettis at UFC 185. During that run, Dos Anjos made his name as an aggressive striker and hard-nosed grappler while taking out a series of other well-known UFC attractions like Benson Henderson, Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone.

Dos Anjos never really caught on as a drawing card, however, and he unexpectedly lost his title to Eddie Alvarez in July 2016, at the low-profile UFC Fight Night 90. That event took place on a Thursday night and aired exclusively on the UFC’s digital subscription service, as part of a three-night extravaganza leading up to the gala UFC 200 fight card.

It made for an ignominious end to Dos Anjos’ run as 155-pound titleist. When he also lost his next bout, to the surging Tony Ferguson in November of that year, he essentially dropped off the crowded lightweight map. It seemed like the end of him as a championship-level fighter.

But on a UFC 215 pay-per-view card that had to be revamped after Demetrious Johnson’s scheduled flyweight title defense against Ray Borg was scratched just before weigh-ins, Dos Anjos roared back to contender status.

Despite that earlier win over Saffiedine, he needed this victory over a solid, middle-of-the-pack welterweight like Magny to prove he’s a serious threat there.

It would be a meteoric reemergence if Dos Anjos managed to roll these two victories straight into a title fight against Woodley, but it also isn’t impossible.

Woodley is just shy of two months removed from a tepid victory over Demian Maia at UFC 214. His previous title defense against Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson at UFC 209 didn’t earn rave reviews, either.

If UFC matchmakers are looking for a challenger who can match Woodley stylistically and push the pace against him physically, they may have found their man in Dos Anjos.

His arrival in the 170-pound title picture is well-timed, too. The top end of the division is currently clogged with guys Woodley has already beaten, including Thompson, Maia, Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit.

Assuming the landscape remains the same, fight company brass might not have many good options to give Woodley next, aside from Jorge Masvidal or Dos Anjos.

“Tyron, I respect you,” Dos Anjos said at the post-fight press conference, “but I’m coming for that belt.”

Exactly what happens next, of course, might hinge on the plans of returning former champion Georges St-Pierre. After a lengthy negotiation over his comeback bout, St-Pierre is booked to take on Michael Bisping for the middleweight title at UFC 217 on Nov. 4.

Depending on how that fight goes, GSP could choose to remain at 185 pounds or return to the welterweight division he ruled with extreme prejudice from roughly 2006-13.

For now, however, Dos Anjos appears well-positioned in his new home.

If all that was keeping him from competing at his full potential at lightweight truly was the massive weight cut, the welterweight division has a new—and very dangerous—contender on its hands.

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Nunes, Shevchenko Prove Nothing in UFC 215 Rematch

So what, exactly, are we supposed to do now?
Saturday night’s UFC 215 main event would help us determine the better fighter: Amanda Nunes or Valentina Shevchenko?

They had fought once already, in March 2016. The only thing we learned back th…

So what, exactly, are we supposed to do now?

Saturday night’s UFC 215 main event would help us determine the better fighter: Amanda Nunes or Valentina Shevchenko?

They had fought once already, in March 2016. The only thing we learned back then is that neither had a significant edge over the other. I guess we learned that if the fight could have somehow gone seven rounds, Shevchenko would have won. She just ran out of time, is all, much like Nunes ran out of energy.

After that, Nunes went out and beat the world and assumed control of the UFC’s Ronda Rousey Memorial Championship before putting her own bloody stamp on Rousey’s career.

We won’t get into the machinations again of what happened back in July, when the rematch was first booked. So let’s just jump straight ahead to Saturday’s contest.

To the fact, in regard to Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, we are no wiser than we were on Saturday morning.

Most fighters will find a nemesis, provided they stick around long enough. I guess that’s what Nunes and Shevchenko are to each other, though it seems likely this rivalry won’t find a place among the great blood feuds of mixed martial arts.

It seems a lot more personal for Shevchenko. That makes sense because it was she who lost a close decision to Nunes. Again.

Saturday night’s shenanigans turned Shevchenko into a ball of fury, raging about the unfairness of it all and repeatedly telling the world Nunes had not even punched her, not even once and that if you don’t believe her, just look at how there were no scratches on her face. And Nunes? You best believe she got punched in the face because just look at her face.

To Shevchenko, the evidence was as clear as day. Alas, mixed martial arts contests are not judged on cosmetic facial damage. But in her defense, who knows how these things are decided? I had Nunes winning the fight. But it was close enough I felt the need to inform my wife just how unsurprised I would be if it went the other way.

What I didn’t tell her was how little I cared either way or how, once I shut the laptop after finishing this column, it’s likely I will never give it another thought.

And I suspect a lot of you feel the same. Because while it was close, this was the rare UFC title fight that wasn’t great or awesome or terrible or boring.

It was just…forgettable.

We saw Nunes exhibit vastly improved cardio. Finally. But what we didn’t see was a champion making a case that she is the best, which seems to be the way she views herself. Shevchenko is still a terrifying force of nature on her feet. But she’s been that way for a long time.

There’s no separation between these two. Not before the fight, and not now. If they fought 10 times, they might each win five. Or one of them might win all 10. This kind of scenario usually leads to a singular thrilling fight that then evolves into a long-term trilogy, with each fighter trying to eke out a win as the fans go wild in the arena and at home.

Nunes and Shevchenko have the same neck-and-neck skills as the greatest rivalries in the sport. This feels like something that should be awesome. Something we should look forward to. Something we tell our friends about.

So why is “please don’t make us watch this again” the only thought creeping into my head right now?

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