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Win or Lose, Is This the Last We See of Conor McGregor the Fighter?

Back in the summer of 2014, when Conor McGregor was preparing for a fight in which he wasn’t even the main event—before he knocked out Jose Aldo or faced off with Nate Diaz or became the UFC’s first-ever simultaneous two-division cham…

That tweet and its six words—Get in. Get rich. Get out.—are on the minds of many as McGregor makes his final preparations to take part in possibly the richest event in combat sports history.

When he steps into the ring on August 26 and ensures his purse, he’ll have secured the first two phases of his philosophy in short order. Don’t get us wrong, he was already rich by any standards before that. But the payday he’ll make for stepping in with Floyd Mayweather Jr. is generational wealth, the kind of mind-blowing riches that ensure that barring complete financial recklessness, he’ll never have to work another day in his life.

Which leads us to the last two words, the ones that matter the most to the MMA world on August 27: Get out. Will he follow his own advice and walk away?

Bleacher Report lead writer Jeremy Botter is joined by former B/R columnist Mike Chiappetta to discuss the subject.

Mike Chiappetta: If McGregor is going to make an early exit from the fight world, this is the time to do it. Even though he’s only 29 years old, it’s unlikely he’ll ever see another payday like this in his career. The circumstances required to make this type of mega-event don’t just pop up regularly. Instead, this is a unicorn, a perfect confluence of events, athletes and zeitgeist to support such a show.

Barring an unlikely McGregor shocker (and a Mayweather rematch), there is no other boxing fight that would draw such money, and there’s no way in the UFC for him to make the same type of cash.

So what does he do here?

To get this out of the way, I think there’s no chance this is the last we see of McGregor in a cage or ring. Someone who loves money the way he does does not get out of the moneymaking business at 29. He’s simply going to try to figure out a way to get more of the promoter’s share for himself. How does he do that? Coming off his fight with Mayweather, his Q-rating will be at an all-time high. He will likely demand to renegotiate his UFC contract for the largest pay-per-view percentage of anyone in promotional history.

And he has leverage on his side. Not just his popularity, but time and money. The UFC knows he doesn’t have to fight again. It also knows he has the war chest to challenge it in court and the time to wait for the legal process to play out if he decides to go that route.

That’s not to say the UFC will cave easily. It has waged most of its biggest battles against its biggest stars (see Randy Couture, Jon Jones, et. al.), and even though McGregor’s relationship with management has been generally good (with some rocky patches along the way), the power dynamic is shifting. The UFC needs superstars, and right now, McGregor is it. There are few other clear routes to having huge events than by being in the McGregor business.

I do believe McGregor will be back, but it may take a while to get him here.

Jeremy, you’ve had some strong thoughts on McGregor’s future in the past, and most of them have been on the money. Do you think he ever fights in the UFC again?

Jeremy Botter: Not only do I think he never fights in the UFC again, Mike…I am absolutely certain he never fights in the UFC again.

Barring some kind of circumstance where McGregor loses every penny he’s made overnight and is forced to return just to eke out a living, we are never going to see him back in the Octagon. And the reason has little to do with money.

For over two years, people close to McGregor have told me of his concern for his long-term health, most notably the status of his brain. McGregor has long been hyper-aware of the risks that come along with combat sports—and the awful effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). And that was before the tragic death of Joao Carvalho a year ago.

Mike, I get why you think he just has to come back and fight. That’s the normal way of things in combat sports. Fighters, professional wrestlers, boxers…they’re never really retired, are they? They’re always on the verge of a comeback. There’s always a young buck they think they’ve got an edge on. There’s always a tax man looking to collect.

But McGregor has never been a normal fighter, or a normal human. What you’ve seen over the course of his rise in the UFC was laid out in his mind before he ever stepped foot in the Octagon. The things we’re seeing now? They’re the things he used to daydream about. The things he used to visualize. Other fighters dream of reaching the pinnacle of the UFC, of winning UFC belts. That’s the culmination of their personal journeys and arcs. But there’s nothing normal about McGregor, and thus you can’t expect him to follow the same kind of path. Or, you shouldn’t, anyway.

Winning UFC gold was just a stop along the way. It was a tool he could use to springboard to greater heights. If you haven’t seen yet that McGregor has his eyes in a life encompassing far more than combat sports, you haven’t been paying close attention.

The evidence is right in front of you. McGregor Sports and Entertainment. The new line of tailored suits. The flirtations with Hollywood roles. The bolstering of his own media outlet. Hell, he’s told us in plain language what the plan is: Get rich. Get out.

The signs have been right in front of our eyes the whole time: This man is not coming back to the Octagon.

Chiappetta: You make a convincing argument. McGregor has indeed offered these indications, and it would be foolish to ignore them. I believe that he believed what he said at the time. But that was then, at another time, and that’s the key reason for my skepticism.

Sure, he’s made other business moves. The promotional company, the suit line, the media work, it’s all a nice extension of his brand, but will any of it scratch the primal itch he’s had for competition for years? Not likely.

We all joke about how many attempts at retirement fighters must make to get it right, but how many walk away at 29 without a second thought? While I concede that McGregor is a special case for the money he earned, I don’t think he’s so different that he will find an outlet that suits him the way fighting does.

Let’s assume he goes into fight promotion. Are you telling me that you think he will spend time around the fight world but somehow avoid scratching the itch to return? I say that’s highly unlikely. Impossible? No. But when you’ve identified as an athlete and a fighter for so long—and you’re still in your athletic prime—the prospect of voluntarily putting yourself on the shelf forever seems close to improbable.

Look, if he did it—if he managed to call it a career and move on to other interests, and stay away from fighting—I would be thrilled for the guy. He’d be one of the first ever to do it right. Muhammad Ali couldn’t walk away without a comeback. “Sugar” Ray Leonard couldn’t. Neither could Mike Tyson or Chuck Liddell or Fedor Emelianenko. The list goes on.

Get in, get rich, get out should be the mantra of every combat sports athlete, but these guys are not wired for practicality. They are wired for risk-taking and extreme personal challenge. I can’t see a suit line and a business role placating those compulsions, not at this age. If Georges St-Pierre couldn’t go a few years without getting desperate to fight again, I can’t see McGregor’s path going any differently.

Jeremy, are you telling me you don’t see any way he returns to combat sports? Regardless of what he’s said, there has to be some part of you that believes the idea of him retiring at 29 to be far-fetched.

Botter: OK, look. What if he somehow beats Mayweather? Or even if he loses, what if he finds himself with the opportunity to face either Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin? I’m not daft enough to claim he’d overlook another massive payday for stepping in the boxing ring one more time.

But I don’t think either of those things happen. They’re purely theoretical.

McGregor is different than all the other guys you mentioned. His obsession isn’t combat sports or competition. His obsession is making money, and not just good money, and not just enough money to make him a rich man. McGregor’s obsession is with making money on the level of, say, Lorenzo Fertitta. His obsession lies in garnering power on the level of a Jay Z. Combat sports can’t bring him either of those things, at least not on the scale he seeks.

I know it’s tough to imagine a guy like this walking away from combat sports at the height of his popularity, and it’s even tougher to imagine him staying away. I know one of McGregor’s goals has been to promote his own fights at Dublin’s Croke Park, either with the UFC as a co-promoter or by going it alone. I suppose that’s one way we could see him back in an Octagon after the Mayweather fight.

But knowing what we do of the UFC’s history, do we really think they’re going to willingly co-promote fights with someone, even if that someone has the stature of McGregor? I’m highly skeptical. The UFC is a machine that operates on a brand-first basis, and allowing co-promotion even for McGregor will open itself up to all sorts of issues with other fighters in the future. And I just don’t see it happening.

Chiappetta: But Jeremy, you don’t have to imagine the UFC co-promoting with someone; it is doing it right now! Even if the fight is a boxing match, the UFC effectively had to agree to something it hasn’t done since it lent Chuck Liddell to Pride back in 2003. It signed off on co-promotion. It shared the pie.

I’m not pretending it did it for altruistic reasons. It did it for money, and money alone, but that fits into the ethos of the WME-IMG ownership group. Researching its co-CEO Ari Emanuel, it seems his management style is mostly improvisational. He’s not married to the old Fertitta/White ideas, so what’s to say he and the new UFC management team won’t consider McGregor’s demands again? After all, a lesser piece of McGregor’s next fight is still a bigger profit-driver for them than any standard UFC pay-per-view. As long as the math works in their favor, I very much expect them to consider it and eventually accept it.

I guess for me, it comes down to one thing: This is a new era. It’s easy to frame this debate within the context of the old days when Fertitta and White ran the show, but this is a different time. One thing Emanuel and co-CEO Patrick Whitesell understand is the power of a superstar, and if McGregor wants to be a part of the UFC going forward, they innately understand the value of keeping him and will certainly consider what it takes to keep him in the fold.

This isn’t like the situation of Ronda Rousey wanting to fade away. McGregor wants to fight; he just has a list of demands. Emanuel and Whitesell have built an empire on high-stakes negotiation, so I’m going to bet they find a way to reach a deal with the biggest star MMA has ever known.

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Floyd Will Win Boxing Match, but How About a ‘Real’ Fight Against McGregor?

The sports world will probably end up having some fun at Conor McGregor’s expense Aug. 26.
If the betting odds, historical precedent and nearly every fight analyst alive are correct, McGregor’s quest to box Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t end well for the p…

The sports world will probably end up having some fun at Conor McGregor’s expense Aug. 26.

If the betting odds, historical precedent and nearly every fight analyst alive are correct, McGregor’s quest to box Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t end well for the plucky mixed martial artist. The overwhelming likelihood is that McGregor gets pieced-up badly by the greatest boxer of his generation that Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

In an age where fans watch sports as much to live-tweet snarky comments as bask in the athletic greatness, it’s also easy to imagine McGregor as the butt of a few (thousand) internet memes. The sheer size of the media circus around this bout demands it.

But while popular culture crowds around to point and laugh at the reigning UFC lightweight champion’s folly, it’s useful to remember one thing: Mayweather will win this boxing match, but McGregor would dominate him in nearly any other kind of fight.

In fact, holding this bout under strict Marquess of Queensberry rules is Mayweather’s only chance to win.

If it were an MMA match? McGregor obviously takes that.

A kickboxing fight? McGregor wins that, too.

A grappling match? McGregor.

A “real” no-rules street fight in one of the dojo basements or boat salvage yards where Kimbo Slice made his name? McGregor all the way.

“That would be suicide for Floyd Mayweather Jr. […],” former WBO super-middleweight boxing champion Chris Eubank told Joe.co.uk’s Darragh Murphy recently. “You’re fit for boxing, you’re not fit for mixed martial arts or street fights or no-holds-barred fights. Conor McGregor would destroy him. There’s no discussion with that.”

The Notorious One has spent the last nine years compiling a professional MMA record of 21-3. In November 2016, he became the first fighter ever to simultaneously hold two championships in two different UFC weight classes after he jumped from 145 to 155 pounds and knocked out then-champ Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.

While ascending to the upper echelon of MMA, McGregor has cultivated an overall skill set far more diverse and nuanced than the one Mayweather uses to win his boxing matches.

While primarily known as a heavy-handed southpaw striker, McGregor is also a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under coach John Kavanagh. In order go to 9-1 in UFC competition since 2013, he’s had to defeat a set of opponents that included NCAA All-American wrestler Chad Mendes, decorated kickboxer Dennis Siver, and BJJ black belts Diego Brandao and Jose Aldo (though, admittedly, the latter took only 13 seconds).

McGregor’s only slip-up in the UFC to date was a submission loss to Nate Diaz in a welterweight fight in March 2016, but he battled back to defeat Diaz in their rematch by majority decision less than six months later.

Any contest that allowed for more than just pure boxing would let McGregor turn those skills loose on Mayweather, who has none of the same diversity in his arsenal. McGregor could easily take him to the ground and submit him if he chose, or he could use his vaunted kicking game to stay out of punching range and punish Mayweather to the legs, body and head.

“That thing would be over real quick […],” UFC President Dana White told Jimmy Kimmel during a recent TV appearance, about how an MMA fight between Mayweather and McGregor would go. “Floyd would take a couple of leg kicks, and that would be the end of that.”

By McGregor’s own estimation, it would take him “less than 30 seconds to wrap around [Mayweather] like a boa constrictor and strangle him,” as he told Esquire‘s Chris Jones back in April 2015.

So, as Mayweather blows the Irishman out of the water inside the squared circle later this month, it will be instructive to remember that McGregor will always be the better all-around fighter.

“What you’re doing is you’re putting Conor McGregor into a situation where he’s holding back nine-tenths of his arsenal […]” former professional boxer and current MMA fighter Heather Hardy said, according to Business Insider’s Scott Davis. “If both of those guys got in a fight on the street, McGregor would whup his ass.”

Why, then, would the 29-year-old Dublin native thrust himself into certain destruction, facing Mayweather in the only kind of bout where the recently retired 40-year-old pugilist has every advantage?

Partly, it’s because Mayweather calls the shots here. It’s also because—as White likes to say—McGregor is just a wild man.

Mostly, though, it’s all about the money.

The economics of combat sports dictate that boxing Mayweather is the only way for McGregor to set his family up for generations to come.

In MMA, where McGregor is unquestionably the biggest star, athletes earn far less than top-of-the-food-chain boxers. Even as the UFC’s highest-paid athlete, McGregor banked just $3 million in reported base salary for his rematch with Diaz at UFC 202—and that fight became the UFC’s biggest seller of all time on pay-per-view.

Compare that with Mayweather, who made over $220 million to fight Manny Pacquiao in 2015, and it becomes apparent why McGregor would want to strap on a pair of boxing gloves and sign up for a sure-fire beating.

McGregor may make $75-100 million for his trouble, per Forbes‘ Brian Mazique, and that could convince anyone that a punches-only bout against one of the greatest of all time is a good idea.

“[I’m] about to quadruple my net worth with half a fight,” McGregor said during the last stop on the promotional world tour he did alongside Mayweather last month. “I’m in shock every single day I wake up. Half a fight, I get to quadruple my net worth for half a f–king fight. Sign me up.”

McGregor could never do that fighting exclusively in MMA—where it is believed promoters keep the largest portion of the profits. A 2015 report by Bloody Elbow’s John S. Nash estimated that UFC athletes are paid somewhere between 13 and 16 percent of total revenue, while the fight company pockets most of the rest.

McGregor may have single-handedly boosted those percentages in recent years after participating in four of the promotion’s top five all-time biggest PPVs. But as long as that estimated 85-15 split exists, it will be impossible for an MMA athlete to make Mayweather money.

Throughout his meteoric rise to the top of mixed-rules fighting, McGregor has been nothing if not money-conscious. Besides his Mack truck left hand and Hall of Fame gift of gab, it’s his defining characteristic.

You can’t blame him for looking around the fight-sports landscape for the most lucrative opportunity. It’s just that to make it happen, he had to enter this classic Faustian bargain—get beat up playing Mayweather’s game but become filthy rich in the process.

The rub for McGregor is that the irony may be lost on many casual fans. The fighter should be applauded for having the guts to cross over into boxing and take on one of the best in the world, but it doesn’t seem likely that will be the overwhelming response to this fight.

Before we all get swept up in the hysteria, just keep repeating it quietly to yourself: Conor McGregor would beat Floyd Mayweather in any kind of fight…except the one the that two men will actually compete.

Then try to remember that as you’re Photoshopping Crying Jordan Face over McGregor’s gorilla chest tattoo.

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Did Rashad Evans’ Career Just End in Mexico City?

On a hot summer night in a land far from his home and way above sea level, a once great champion lost to a divisional afterthought.
He looked tepid and old—the continuation of a trend that’s been ongoing for a number of years—despite lookin…

On a hot summer night in a land far from his home and way above sea level, a once great champion lost to a divisional afterthought.

He looked tepid and old—the continuation of a trend that’s been ongoing for a number of years—despite looking as close to physically perfect as he ever has in his career.

Rashad Evans, the once great champion, looked very much done with this whole mixed martial arts racket during his loss to Sam Alvey, the divisional afterthought, at UFC Fight Night: Pettis vs. Moreno on Saturday.

It all had a sad, almost surreal quality to it. Evans found himself buried on the undercard of an event nobody in their right mind was invested in, one fight away from jerking the curtain for names like Niko Price and Humberto Bandenay.

He looked shot, trepidation apparent from the get-go as he labored through three rounds against a capable but entirely unspectacular foe. It was his fourth loss in a row and sixth in eight fights after he lost only three times in the previous eight years.

Everything that made Evans a legend was gone: explosiveness, athleticism, unpredictability and ever-underrated in-fight intellect. It looked to anyone who knew what he once was like he was a man who had lived a long, hard 37 years on this planet and that fighting in a steel cage on a Saturday night was the last thing he should be doing.

It would almost be insulting to Evans, owner of light heavyweight wins over legends like Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson and Dan Henderson, if it didn’t appear to be his own insistence at continuing a so obviously deleterious MMA career that was keeping him active.

This is a man who was a UFC champion during the sport’s greatest boom, a man who was capable of drawing as many eyes and dollars as the best in the business. He’s every bit the Hall of Famer contemporaries such as BJ Penn, Georges St-Pierre, Matt Hughes and Forrest Griffin are, and he holds convincing wins over almost every big name from his era.

And now he’s losing to Alvey on free television? On an event that got less attention than Joe Rogan’s interview selections?

Nope. No thanks.

It’s time for him to let go of this sport and his role as an active athlete and move on to things for which he’s better suited.

His experience and aforementioned intellect would position him well to train fighters, if he so desired. He ran roughshod through heavyweights to win the second season of The Ultimate Fighter, and he ascended to the top of the light heavyweight class when it was at its best. Learning what was behind those accomplishments would surely be valuable to up-and-coming fighters.

He is fantastic as an analyst on UFC broadcasts and could easily expand that line of work. He’s educated, articulate and charismatic and already has working relationships with both Fox and the UFC.

It likely wouldn’t take much for him to be a regular at the Fox desk or on Fight Pass going forward, a safer pursuit than dodging headkicks and future CTE in the name of scraping by (or losing to) the Alveys of the world.

For that matter, he could use the same tools that make him a great analyst to jump over into acting. Fellow Fox regulars Tyron Woodley and Michael Bisping have done as much, and both share many of the best traits of Evans in front of a camera.

It’s hard to pinpoint what brought Evans to this point, whether it was losing coach Greg Jackson amid a feud with Jon Jones, the continued long delays imposed on him during his 30s or age and wear simply caught up to him as it catches up to every combat athlete.

Regardless, this version of Evans is nothing close to the one that was iconic in its era. He is a man who has accomplished everything and has been stripped away to nothing competitively. There is nothing left for him in this game.

Did we see the end of Rashad Evans’ career in Mexico City?

Only he knows, and no one else gets to make the decision for him.

But based on his storied career, the money he’s made, the options he has for the future and how he’s looked recently, one would have to hope we did.

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder.

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Why Brock Lesnar vs. Jon Jones UFC Superfight Is Good for WWE

The buzz over a dream UFC fight coming to life between WWE universal champion Brock Lesnar and Jon “Bones” Jones is crackling loudly already.
The Beast Incarnate’s name is in headline after headline. MMA experts are debating the outcome. Odds…

The buzz over a dream UFC fight coming to life between WWE universal champion Brock Lesnar and Jon “Bones” Jones is crackling loudly already.

The Beast Incarnate’s name is in headline after headline. MMA experts are debating the outcome. Oddsmakers are drawing up each man’s chances.

Not surprisingly, the potential meeting of a megastar and a knockout artist who may be the greatest cage-fighter we’ve ever seen has the fighting world in a feverish state.

That’s great news for UFC. MMA writer Damon Martin is among those who believe Jones vs. Lesnar could be the biggest fight ever:

One can just imagine UFC President Dana White hearing a “ca-ching” sound going off in his head, but WWE headman Vince McMahon has to be grinning, as well.

Lesnar, one of his top Superstars, is half of one of the biggest stories in sports right now. His company and top champion are set for great major exposure. And Lesnar’s sizable aura could grow even more.

Speculation about a Lesnar-Jones superfight began moments after Bones chased down his opponent at UFC 214 on Saturday. Jones immediately set his sights on The Beast Incarnate after pounding Daniel Cormier into the mat. His newly won UFC light heavyweight championship hung around his waist as he called out Lesnar:

“If you want to know what it feels like to get your ass kicked by a guy who weighs 40 pounds less than you, meet me in the Octagon,” Jones said in a post-fight interview.

Lesnar heard him. He told the Associated Press in response: “Careful what you wish for, young man.”

To go from verbal shots to real ones is going to take some work. Lesnar has six more months left to serve for a suspension due to taking banned substances. He is still under contract with WWE. And Jones would have to move up a weight class to take on the heavyweight slugger.

After seeing the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor megafight come together, those obstacles don’t seem like much at all, though.

During the build to Jones vs. Lesnar, WWE’s name is sure to come up several times. The latter crossing over from pro wrestling again would be a major part of this story.

It’s possible Lesnar could still even hold WWE’s Universal Championship when squaring off against Jones. The visual of Lesnar wearing that red and gold title on his shoulders as he stepped into the Octagon would delight McMahon.

When Lesnar fought Mark Hunt at UFC 200 while still working for WWE last year, the company was happy to be a part of the promotional effort, airing video packages to hype the bout.

More eyes on Lesnar fighting creates more chances for casual fans to glom onto him, to seek out his WWE exploits. And if he’s still under contract, WWE can work out a deal to air some promos for one of its one events at the fight as did at UFC 200.

There’s also the issue of legitimacy.

WWE is often laughed off as “fake.” There’s a subset of the sports audience who doesn’t respect or understand what pro wrestlers do.

When they succeed in the Octagon or the gridiron, WWE is quick to point it out, to remind us that its history is filled with athletes from the world of sports.

Should Lesnar defeat Jones, it would be a victory for pro wrestling. It would be the latest piece of evidence that the men and women of the squared circle are not to be dismissed as stunt artists.

Not to mention, The Beast Incarnate would step back into the WWE circle with an even more impressive resume, as a bigger icon of combat sports, with his specialness highlighted even more.

Even a Lesnar loss would be beneficial to WWE, though. The company would be a part of the subplot of the sports story of the year. It would showcase one of its best on a grand stage.

And it would get free advertising throughout the journey to the fight.

This isn’t a pipe dream of a bout, either. OddsShark has the odds for the fight to happen before July 15 next year at -160 (bet $160 to win $100). ESPN MMA insider Brett Okamato said of it: “If Brock Lesnar is serious about coming back to the Octagon, I do think this fight will happen.”

If it does, whether Lesnar or Jones comes out on top, WWE would be one of the victors that night.

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Boo All You Want, Tyron Woodley’s ‘Boring’ UFC 214 Performance Was All Business

First, let us be clear about something: The UFC welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia at UFC 214 was a bad fight. There’s no other way to spin it.
For fans watching in the arena and at home, it was an utterly boring and p…

First, let us be clear about something: The UFC welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia at UFC 214 was a bad fight. There’s no other way to spin it.

For fans watching in the arena and at home, it was an utterly boring and perhaps soul-sucking experience, especially considering all that preceded it.

The main card went from Volkan Oezdemir violently dispatching Jimi Manuwa in just 22 seconds to Robbie Lawler and Donald Cerrone delivering a Fight of the Night-type performance to Cris Cyborg at long last claiming UFC gold over the ultra-tough but ultra-overmatched Tonya Evinger.

And then…Woodley and Maia set a new UFC record for the least amount of strikes thrown in a five-round UFC fight.

One can hardly blame the fans in the Honda Center for expressing their displeasure by booing, doing the wave and even holding up their lit-up cell phones in unison. Hell, the only thing that kept me from falling asleep at home was the occasional glance at social media, which offered far more entertainment than the television.

All that said, Woodley’s performance was also deliberate and masterful.

White and the UFC have conditioned us to believe that the best fighters are the ones who take risks, even if it means putting their livelihood at stake. They (and we) want to see all action, all the time, and so we boo if there’s a stalemate on the ground or on the feet. And we especially want our champions to take chances, because that’s what we’ve been taught to believe real fighters do.

But what of the things we don’t consider, or the things we don’t know?

What about the fact that a championship contract is different than a regular contract, and how those championship contracts with their elevated pay scale and perks tend to evaporate once you lose your title? What if you’re making $500,000 guaranteed as long as you’re the champ, but drop down to $75,000 after a loss?

And what about those professional fighters who lean more towards the professional side of things than the fighter side? What about those who treat their time inside the Octagon as a business?

See, Woodley knew what he was going up against. In Maia, he faced a one-trick pony who is perhaps the best in the world at executing his one trick. That one thing Maia does so well, which is take his opponents to the mat and relentlessly work for a submission win, is as financially devastating to a titleholder as a ruthless head kick or one-punch knockout.

Maia had one avenue to wrest the belt away from Woodley’s clutches.

And Woodley, a thoughtful and truly professional athlete, did what he had to do to keep Maia from waltzing down that avenue. And boy, did he ever. Woodley stopped all 24 of Maia’s takedown attempts and, in doing so, shut down any chance Maia had of winning. In its own way, it was a beautiful technical performance, though you’d be hard pressed to find anyone outside of Woodley taking that approach when analyzing the fight.

If winning a fight is Woodley’s sole concern, that’s his prerogative as the champion.

The UFC has never stripped a fighter of a championship solely because they aren’t much fun to watch; the best they can do is hope to find someone talented enough to overcome Woodley’s negate-first game plan. That, or continue hoping Woodley will decide to start forcing his own offensive game plan on his opponent, rather than just sitting back and stopping them from executing their own.

But Woodley also needs to understand that as long as he takes that kind of approach to his fights, he’ll continue to be a deeply unpopular champion. He won’t get the big fights (witness the very critical Dana White taking away Woodley’s chance to face Georges St-Pierre at Madison Square Garden in November), he won’t get the big pay raises, and he won’t get the big promotional push.

I get the sense he understands that, though. He wants to win by any means necessary, even if it angers his promoter and dulls the senses of action-seeking fans. Keeping his place at the top of the food chain is his way of building a championship legacy, and he can go about doing that however he wants.

It’s up to the rest of the division to stop him. After all, as the great Ric Flair once said: To be the man, you have to beat the man.

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Jon Jones vs. Brock Lesnar Could Be the Biggest, Best Fight in UFC History

Life moves fast around here.
No sooner did MMA complete what may turn out to be its biggest fight of 2017 on Saturday at UFC 214—with Jon Jones dispatching Daniel Cormier via third-round KO—than the fight company began trying to load next y…

Life moves fast around here.

No sooner did MMA complete what may turn out to be its biggest fight of 2017 on Saturday at UFC 214—with Jon Jones dispatching Daniel Cormier via third-round KO—than the fight company began trying to load next year’s marquee attraction on to the launch pad.

“Brock Lesnar,” Jones said on the mic after defeating Cormier to reclaim the organization’s light heavyweight title. “If you want to know what it feels like to get your ass kicked by a guy who weighs 40 pounds less than you, meet me in the Octagon.”

If Jones and Lesnar make good on their threats to fight each other at heavyweight during 2018, it would be an unbelievable spectacle. It would also be the leader in the clubhouse to become the UFC’s biggest-selling fight of all time.

Both parties have independently said they’re ready, and UFC President Dana White is interested in the idea. A blaze of attention has sparked around the potential fight after Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter tweeted July 20 that Jones vs. Lesnar was at the top of the organization’s wishlist for the coming year:

As Botter noted, a lot of tumblers still have to drop for this bout to become a reality. UFC Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky debunked initial reports that Lesnar had already re-entered the UFC’s drug-testing pool, per John Morgan of MMAjunkie. The big man would still have to serve the remaining time on a suspension he picked up after testing positive around his most recent comeback fight.

With Lesnar enjoying a lucrative but low-impact regular role with WWE, he could also merely be using all this Jones talk as a negotiating tactic for his next pro wrestling contract.

But we can dream, can’t we? Joining me to discuss the possibility of Jones vs. Lesnar is Bleacher Report lead combat sports writer Jonathan Snowden.

Chad Dundas: On one hand, Jones vs. Lesnar seems too weird and wonderful to happen. It feels like something the UFC would have teased us with back in 2013, only to have it fall apart after a combination of injury, unsuccessful contract negotiations, drug-test failures and other mundane calamities.

But if the journey of Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor from fantasy to reality has taught us anything, it’s that we should be more careful about throwing around phrases like “never ever” and “publicity stunt.”

Not to sound like a broken record, either, but we are more than a year into the WME-IMG era in the UFC, during which we have all been told that increasing revenue is the rule of the day. If our new Octagon overlords are serious about pumping up profits, Jones vs. Lesnar would be about the most effective move on the game board.

Could this fight happen? Would both guys take it? Would the MMA stars align to allow us to be this happy?

Jonathan Snowden: Both fighters would take the fight without a moment’s hesitation. Did you see Jones address the possibility in a BT Sport interview? I haven’t seen someone say “yes” that quickly since the last time I asked my wife whether she wanted me to watch the kids while she got some alone time.

That’s fast!

As for Lesnar, I don’t see any reason he wouldn’t take the fight too. Whatever flaws the man may have, cowardice and hesitancy are not among them. This is a guy who fought Frank Mir in just his second MMA fight and came back after five years of WWE hijinks to dismantle the UFC’s hardest puncher in Mark Hunt.

Neither of these men knows fear in the way us mere mortals do.

My concern is this fight is too good to go down. UFC’s track record when it comes to promoting superfights isn’t so grand. We didn’t get Frank Shamrock vs. Bas Rutten, Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell in their primes, Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture or Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre. That’s four “didn’t gets” without scratching the surface of missed opportunities.

But the new UFC is all about finding ways to separate fools from their money. And if we are any indication, an awful lot of fools would be quick to toss $60 at White to see this fight.

Chad: Maybe I’m still high on the revelation that Mayweather vs. McGregor is going to happen, but I have some hope Jones vs. Lesnar can too.

For one thing, unlike Silva or Emelianenko, it should be no huge trick for the UFC to get both these fighters under contract. It already has Jones, and Lesnar‘s UFC 200 appearance against Hunt showed his WWE deal isn’t an insurmountable obstacle. We don’t think this one will take a Couture-style Hail Mary lawsuit to get on paper.

You know what else I like about the prospect of a Lesnar-Jones matchup? It makes sense, athletically as well as promotionally.

Now that Jones has put the Cormier feud behind him, there’s no pressing business keeping him at light heavyweight. Conventional wisdom has always said he would wind up at heavyweight, and nobody is going to offer him the sort of payday or exposure Lesnar would.

Meanwhile, at 40, His Brockness has eased into part-time duty with both WWE and the UFC. His win over Hunt, though overturned, showed he can still be a force while simultaneously reminding us of his stylistic shortcomings. He continues to bring a ton of interest from casual and hardcore fans alike, but he’s not knocking on the door of a title shot at 265 pounds.

To me at least, it makes perfect sense to put Jones and Lesnar together.

And that’s to say nothing of the actual, physical matchup, which is intriguing enough to set my heart aflutter and my head spinning.

Jonathan: You know what’s amazing about Jon Jones, beside all the obvious things like his work ethic, skill and questionable decision-making? His pure size—measurables in the parlance of our world.

Against Cormier, he had a five-inch height advantage and a whopping 12-inch edge in reach. Having those edges allows Jones to strike well before he can be struck and helps him control where and when the fighting takes place.

This is kind of a big deal.

You know what else is amazing? He’d still have those physical advantages against Brock Lesnar!

We think of Lesnar as this gargantuan, a grizzly bear with a crew cut and the capacity to hate. But Jones is taller and has a longer reach. With 30 extra pounds on him, even the great Lesnar may be biting off more than he can chew.

In some ways, this is the single most fascinating fight I can imagine. It’s like Superman going man-to-beast with the Incredible Hulk. Do we dare pick a winner?

Chad: Jones may be taller and rangier, but even at 240 pounds or so, he would give up significant size to Lesnar, who cuts weight to make the 265-pound limit and might be around 280 on fight night.

But while physical size and strength may well define this matchup, they also are just the gateway to a million fascinating questions.

Jones would be the better-rounded, more mobile fighter, but would he be able to use those skills and his quickness to keep Lesnar off him? Would Brock just steamroll him down to the mat as many times as it took to get a stoppage or salt away a decision?

Further, if Brock does manage to muscle past Jones’ length and take him down, could he keep him there?

Could Jones work his dynamic, diverse offense against Lesnar? Is Lesnar done for if it stays on the feet? Does the former heavyweight champ’s sheer power make the margin of error so small he would catch Jones with something and knock him out?

These are just the questions that immediately come off the top of my head. And frankly, I don’t know the answers to any of them.

I’d cautiously pick Jones, based on age, athleticism and all-around skill set. But if you told me Lesnar wound up being too damn big, I’d believe that too.

What say you?

Jonathan: Jones had fought some of the best wrestlers in UFC history before stepping into the cage with Cormier.

Ryan Bader, Matt Hamill, Chael Sonnen and Vladimir Matyushenko all fell way short. None of them even looked remotely competitive against Jones. He didn’t just fend off their feeble attempts; he took each wrestler down, bruising pride while also bruising bodies by beating them at their own game.

But there’s a difference between those men and Lesnar: 50 pounds of muscle.

You’re right that Lesnar would present the kind of challenge Jones has never faced in his outstanding career. But Jones has proved over and over again that he’s a man who steps up to challenges and never wilts. He would meet Lesnar head on and emerge victorious, adding another bullet point on what is already a Hall of Fame resume.

Jones has built his legend in the insular world of MMA. This is the fight that spreads the word to the masses. It’s not just the best fight you could possibly make for Jones—it’s the only one that would make him the next big thing.

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