Tag: Opinion

Conor McGregor’s Brooklyn Embarrassment

In hindsight, maybe a four-city press tour wasn’t such a great idea.
Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor hit the Big Apple on Thursday for a big to-do designed to build anticipation for their massive August 26 boxing match. It was a repeat performance …

In hindsight, maybe a four-city press tour wasn’t such a great idea.

Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor hit the Big Apple on Thursday for a big to-do designed to build anticipation for their massive August 26 boxing match. It was a repeat performance of the previous two days in name only. In literally every other way, it was worse.

The first two press conferences in Los Angeles and Toronto created a ton of interest in the fight. You could sense non-believers starting to reach for their wallets in preparation of turning $100 over to Mayweather and McGregor.

The Brooklyn variation? It was more like Mayweather and McGregor setting all of that money on fire, then dumping the still-hot embers back on the rest of us.

Yes, it was that bad. In every way imaginable. It is bad enough that Mayweather’s new idea of fight promotion consists of cursing and a whole lot of nothing else. It is bad enough that the whole thing started two hours late, leaving thousands of waiting fans irate.

But McGregor’s earlier performance on the microphone was bad enough that everything else can be overlooked.

McGregor, clad in a fur coat, ugly leggings and no shirt, decided to address critics who accused him of racism after the Los Angeles tour stop when he kept telling Mayweather to “Dance for me, boy.” He could’ve used this time to explain what he meant. He could’ve ignored the chatter altogether in hopes of not fanning the flames. He could’ve apologized for the insensitive remark even if he didn’t mean to offend.

Instead, he doused the flames in petrol.

“Let me address race. A lot of people have me saying I’m against black people. That’s absolutely ridiculous,” McGregor said. “Do they not know I’m half-black? I’m half-black from the belly button down.”

Perhaps McGregor felt this stunning remark didn’t get his point across. Maybe the crowd wasn’t laughing enough for his liking.

(They weren’t laughing at all, in fact.)

Either way, McGregor unfortunately decided to keep talking. He noted he had a present for his black female fans in the audience, and then started dry-humping the air.

UFC President Dana White expressed his own NSFW displeasure with the event:

McGregor said afterward that he was only trying to have a little bit of fun with the critics who accused him of making racist comments. It is time someone told him that having fun with racism isn’t actually a real thing. He also doesn’t get to decide what’s fun and what isn’t.

And it’s time to cancel this whole press tour altogether.

Because at this point, it’s doing more harm than good. There’s another stop scheduled for London. It was the most anticipated stop on the tour for anyone who has seen a prior McGregor press conference in Ireland or the United Kingdom. The fans will be rabid and they will be festive, and they’ll sing songs about McGregor and generally make it a must-see.

They have a long flight to England before stepping on that stage. I’d like to think both men will take the time to reflect on the damage they’ve already caused to their own bottom line, and to figure out how to recover from it.

But given how much they deteriorated after two days, it might not be the best idea to give either of them a live microphone.

Forget about beating the all-time pay-per-view record by drawing in a massive audience of casual fans from around the world.

One more performance like Thursday, and the only people who stick around to actually buy the fight will be UFC fans.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Conor McGregor Steals the Show in Round 2 of the Mayweather-McGregor World Tour

Conor McGregor figures out these boxing pressers in a hurry.
Wednesday afternoon in Toronto was proof of that.
After a tough go of things on Tuesday in Los Angeles and a protracted wait as Floyd Mayweather made his way to the press conference, McGregor…

Conor McGregor figures out these boxing pressers in a hurry.

Wednesday afternoon in Toronto was proof of that.

After a tough go of things on Tuesday in Los Angeles and a protracted wait as Floyd Mayweather made his way to the press conference, McGregor came to the stage spitting pure fire.

He worked the Canadian crowd into a frenzy by calling out Mayweather in every way imaginable, from his age to his tax problems to his reading ability to his outlandish budget for strippers. He then called out Showtime for allegedly cutting off his microphone on Tuesday before turning his attention to soaking up the adulation he was getting from the crowd.

(Warning: Tweet contains NSFW language) 

Before the thing was 10 minutes old it was clear that Mayweather might as well not even take his time to speak, for how much good it would do to redeem him.

If McGregor had generous crowd support in Los Angeles, he might consider a run for mayor of Toronto based on the rousing ovations he received at every turn, the smattering of Irish flags and the willingness of 15,000 citizens to shout “f–k the Mayweathers” on his very command.

The whole thing was much more in line with what those who know McGregor from his MMA career have come to expect. He’s a gifted orator who generates thoughtful, focused talking points and delivers them in organic ways that come about as he works himself up with his own silver tongue.

It’s unique to the fight game—boxing or MMA—and it’s why Dana White is so quick to draw comparisons between McGregor’s best work and the mind games of Muhammad Ali so many years ago.

It’s not necessarily about the comparing the two in terms of athletic greatness, social impact or historical relevance, but instead it’s about drawing analogy between the cerebral way both men have broken down foes mentally before breaking them down physically.

Today, boxing fans and casual fans got to see that very best of that part of McGregor in a way that wasn’t on display on Tuesday.

Not to be totally outdone, Mayweather got some good digs in himself once he was given a microphone.

While the choreographed chanting and bookbag holding some cash are played out after only a day, Mayweather landed a good shot when he spoke directly to Dana White about how the truly rich guys don’t wear suits because they don’t have to—a line delivered literally inches from McGregor, clad as always in an impeccable outfit (perhaps a moment he wished he’d worn Tuesday’s suit today, instead).

Still, there is no question that this was McGregor’s event. He verbally mopped the floor with Mayweather in a fashion that probably exceeded even the wildest expectations of those who have been excited about this press tour.

All of it—the chirping, the crowd involvement, the drawing Mayweather into a war of words he can’t possibly win—it all worked in every way McGregor could have hoped.

Now he’ll take that momentum on to Brooklyn, where he’ll likely be similarly adored, and then onto London, where he is sure to absolutely tear the house down in front a heavy infusion of Irish imports.

It’s this type of stuff that makes combat sports what it is, straddling the line between athletics and the athletic occult, and no one understands those dark arts better than McGregor.

He reminded everyone of that on Wednesday. 

Should he carry that momentum onward through fight night, poor Floyd Mayweather doesn’t have a chance.

 

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder!

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Floyd Mayweather Surprisingly Bests Conor McGregor in First Press Conference

If the outcome of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor megafight is as surprising as the outcome of the first press conference, it might be time to put every dollar you have down on McGregor.
The reason?
Mayweather cleaned up at the first major even…

If the outcome of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor megafight is as surprising as the outcome of the first press conference, it might be time to put every dollar you have down on McGregor.

The reason?

Mayweather cleaned up at the first major event that brought the two combat sports icons together, and no one in their right mind saw that coming.

Kicking off a series of four events set to take place this week in Los Angeles, Toronto, New York and London, Mayweather stalked the Staples Center stage and spit venom at his future foe.

He talked of money and fame. He talked of greatness. He talked of his motivation despite his advanced age.

He paced and shadowboxed, clad in TMT attire and hellbent on reminding people that he’s among the best to ever perform in a boxing ring and among the best to ever turn himself into a one-man business—in the combat sports space or elsewhere.

In the crowning moment of the presser for either man, Mayweather lit into McGregor for his earning power, a point of pride for the Irishman in the comparatively small pond of MMA. Mayweather mocked the UFC lightweight champion for taking home a mere $3 million in his last appearance.

Never modest, Mayweather reiterated his worth as a “nine-figure” athlete before moving on.

It was all in stark contrast to his persona in the latter stages of his career, one that has been less focused on promotion by mouthing off and more about flaunting his wealth and letting his name and brand do the selling.

Throughout it all, McGregor was more or less lost.

He started out by hitting his production mark too early, left to wave from a still shadowy stage and then dance awkwardly to both his own music and Mayweather’s while he waited for others to join him.

He gave a clumsy, oddly underprepared speech that rambled circularly and didn’t hit home at any point, be it when he attempted jabs at Mayweather, spoke of his newly minted McGregor Sports and Entertainment banner or acknowledged his infant son watching from home.

He snapped at Mayweather a few times as Mayweather delivered verbal blow after verbal blow from the pulpit, but it was largely for naught. His microphone even cut out at one point for good measure, a piece of symbolism that was surely too on-the-nose for anyone supporting him.

By the final faceoff, there was plenty of jaw-jacking going on as a throng of photographers, videographers and hangers-on crowded around. Dana White took his familiar spot between the athletes to ensure nothing happened—a dubious choice, given his track record of failing to prevent McGregor from causing press conference chaos in the past—but it felt like the battle was long over by then.

And it was all Mayweather.

Nobody rightfully expected that.

It leaves one to suspect that, for all the elements of this sporting carnival that may appear predictable leading up to their August 26 performance, perhaps there are some tricks still left to be seen.

The next leg takes place Wednesday, July 12, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Expect McGregor to be sharper and wittier now that he’s had a taste of what to expect from a boxing presser. Knowing he lost Tuesday’s war of words may fuel him to dig into Mayweather with more aplomb. 

Let the hype train roll onward.

 

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @matthewjryder.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Dana White vs. Amanda Nunes: Was Dana Right to Bury the Champ for Withdrawal?

Hours before Saturday’s UFC 213, the unthinkable happened. 
Amanda Nunes, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion and the A-side to the show’s main event contest, was pulled from the card. The reason wasn’t immediately known, but as soon as the word…

Hours before Saturday’s UFC 213, the unthinkable happened. 

Amanda Nunes, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion and the A-side to the show’s main event contest, was pulled from the card. The reason wasn’t immediately known, but as soon as the word officially came out, battle lines were drawn.

“The doctor cleared her to fight…she said she doesn’t feel good,” said UFC President Dana White (h/t Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times). “It is what it is. You can’t make anyone fight.”

Details were still scant for fans and pundits, but longtime fans knew the direction this was going in. White has attacked fighters through the media in the past many, many times, with the implications that a fighter is “scared” as one of the go-to ways to slice their credibility. Shogun Rua, Demetrious Johnson and plenty of others have been on the receiving end of this treatment. And before Sunday morning, Nunes was among that lot.

“I asked the doctors what was wrong with her. She was medically cleared. She was physically OK. They found nothing wrong with her. But she didn’t feel right,” he said in another interview with MMAjunkie. Ben Fowlkes, a writer for that site, tweeted:

“She said, ‘I don’t feel right, I don’t feel good.’ I think that it was 90 percent mental and maybe 10 percent physical; I think a lot of fighters have had times where they don’t feel right,” he said at the post-fight press conference (h/t MMA Fighting).

It wasn’t the vitriolic rant fans are used to from White, but the implication was clear. Nunes was good to go, but she’s a coward. An irresponsible coward. A selfish, irresponsible coward that nearly killed the UFC’s second-biggest event of July. 

But while the UFC president is known for these kinds of actions, there was an unusual specificity to what he said. While White isn’t above pretending that he’s a medical expert in order to push his own narrative, he cited actual doctors as the ones that said she was good to go. That raised an eyebrow and Nunes all but confirmed White’s larger claims in a public statement released on social media:

It’s a somewhat strange defense from Nunes, who came just shy of saying she withdrew from the fight just because she didn’t want to compete at anything other than 100 percent. That begs the question: Was White, just this one time, actually right to publicly deride one of his fighters?

The discussion, naturally, starts with looking at what “chronic sinusitis” is. The Mayo Clinic describes it thus:

“Chronic sinusitis is a common condition in which the cavities around nasal passages (sinuses) become inflamed and swollen for at least 12 weeks, despite treatment attempts. … This condition interferes with drainage and causes mucus buildup. Breathing through your nose might be difficult. The area around your eyes and face might feel swollen, and you might have facial pain or tenderness.”

She went to the hospital on the day of the fight “off-balance” and “unable to breath.” There is no indication that she specifically sought care from the doctors for the sinusitis and underwent blood testing.

While sinusitis may not sound like much, a nose that’s swollen shut is extremely troublesome in day-to-day life, never even mind heavy athletic competition. Doctors cleared her to fight but, as UFC strawweight (and Nunes’ girlfriend) Nina Ansaroff stated (warning, NSFW language) that means very little. Both in MMA and in many other sports, there is no shortage of stories about doctors being overeager to send an injured patient back into competition, and unfortunately, athletes are typically the only ones looking out for their own health.

Nunes is ultimately the only one that truly knew whether she was fight-ready and the fact that she was willing to pass on a payday opposite an opponent she has previously beaten needs to be looked at seriously.

That said, there is no question that even the worst case of sinusitis pales in comparison to the maladies other fighters have pushed through in order to compete. The UFC on Fox 1 main event, for example, saw both Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez compete with serious knee injuries and those sorts of tales are by no means uncommon.

Of course, on the flipside, not everyone was in the same position Nunes was in at UFC 213. While UFC on Fox 1 was a bright spotlight for the newly minted Velasquez while Dos Santos was set for his first title shot at the event, UFC 213 was doomed to be a pay-per-view dud, with or without Nunes.

The UFC has been inexplicably resistant to Nunes as champion, making no serious effort to put her in front of cameras despite the fact that she can be packaged to casual fans as “the woman who retired Ronda Rousey.” Couple that with the company going all-in to promote UFC 214, which takes place later this month, and Nunes had no real financial incentive to push herself, especially when a loss would savage her income going forward.

This back-and-forth can go on indefinitely, though. Does Nunes have an unwritten obligation to fight on, given her main event status? Couldn’t the UFC have made it worth Nunes’ while to fight, even at a disadvantage? Why should the UFC let fighters ransom events for minor ailments? On and on.

Ultimately, these questions are impossible to answer definitively. But they also are somewhat tangential to the core issue here: Was White right to publicly run down Nunes for the UFC 213 main event cancellation?

The answer there is a definitive no. Even in the worst-case scenario, with Nunes cowering away from the challenge of Shevchenko, what does White gain out of letting the public know about this?

Nunes is still the bantamweight champion. The UFC is still going to be counting on her to sell tickets. She is still a valuable piece of the promotion at this point. Despite all that, White went out of his way to damage her reputation with fans in a move that, quite frankly, benefits nobody. That’s not a good look from a fight promoter (whose job, in theory, is to promote fights).

The good news—or at least, not bad news—is that Nunes won’t be gone for long. According to White, UFC 215 in September is a likely landing spot for her next fight. Where she ends up on the card and whether this causes any lingering tension between the two parties going forward will be an interesting topic heading into the event.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Trailing and Injured, Robert Whittaker Defeated Yoel Romero and Fate

About 10 minutes into the most important fight of his life, things weren’t exactly going well for Robert Whittaker. He was trailing after losing each of the first two rounds, his opponent Yoel Romero had a documented history of dominating third rounds,…

About 10 minutes into the most important fight of his life, things weren’t exactly going well for Robert Whittaker. He was trailing after losing each of the first two rounds, his opponent Yoel Romero had a documented history of dominating third rounds, and worst of all, Whittaker was injured.

Sometime early in the first, Romero had hit him with a kick in the same left leg he had hurt in training, aggravating the injury. It is difficult enough facing a former Olympic wrestler on an eight-fight win streak. Now he had lost all room for error. 

It was one of those moments where Whittaker would have been well within the norm to believe everything had begun to slip away from him. To believe that because Romero was far older and had overcome so much more in life, that maybe this was meant to be his night.

After all, Whittaker is only 26. His future, it would be easy to reason, is still way in the future. There would be time to overcome a loss, especially to a rampaging Romero. 

So returning to his corner between rounds of the UFC 213 main event, how did he feel?

“It was unstable,” he said in his in-cage post-fight interview. “I know that Romero will capitalize on any weakness he sees, so I had to play it off. It’s pretty bad but champions are made of this stuff.”

No stability in his leg, no room for error, and for the final three rounds, Whittaker (19-4) rose to the occasion. For the final 15 minutes, he was as close to perfect as he needed to be. He controlled the volume, he shut down Romero’s wrestling, he sprinted to the finish line in the fifth when everything hung in the balance.

It was a championship performance, even if it was only the interim belt on the line. Truly, he may be the best middleweight in the world, above even current champion Michael Bisping.

“That was the most agonizing 15 minutes I’ve had,” Whittaker said. “But it’s unbelievable.”

Whittaker was the contender that most never saw coming. After winning his season of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes in 2012, Whittaker went 2-2 in his first four fights as a welterweight, eventually getting knocked out by Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.

As he tried to tread water, he came to realize that the weight cut was costing him more than it offered. After one more fight, he decided to abandon the cut in favor of competing at his more natural class of middleweight.

Unburdened by the change, he was immediately a revelation, tightening up his striking and earning back-to-back knockouts. It’s been onward and upward ever since, with Whittaker punching his ticket to the interim title fight after knocking out the Brazilian star Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. 

In some divisions, seven wins is enough for a title shot, but Whittaker needed the eighth. Now, after Saturday, the UFC finally said he would get to face champion Bisping later this year.

That’s the right call. Bisping hasn’t competed since escaping with a decision against 46-year-old Dan Henderson last October. Since then, he’s publicly flirted with Georges St-Pierre in a matchup that was promised, fell apart and has spent the last two weeks undergoing emergency resuscitation in hopes of being revived.

Still, if Bisping was going to fight any middleweight, it seemed up until Saturday night that it would be Romero, who was never shy about calling out Bisping, reminding him he was on the way to tangle.

The two had a built-in albeit mild feud that will have to be back-burnered for the kid who punctuated a remarkable streak with a remarkable ending. 

After two rounds, according to FightMetric, Romero (13-2) had out-landed Whittaker 63-17 and had converted three takedown tries. The rest of the way, Whittaker landed 77 strikes to Romero’s 51 and allowed only a single takedown out of eight attempts. 

While some were quick to point to Romero’s decreased output in the final three rounds, such an assessment fails to offer Whittaker credit for his early scrambling and ability to return to his feet quickly, forcing Romero to expend copious amounts of energy for little gain. 

“I knew he always tries to dictate the pace and control of the fight with wrestling,” Whittaker said on the Fox post-fight show. “He did surprise me with the volume of wrestling, but it took a toll on him. He tried to set a pace he couldn’t keep up with.”

Finally, it seems, we found something that Romero can’t do.

Prior to last night, it seemed he refused to subscribe to human bounds. He has a body that an artist might sculpt with clay and then think to himself that he’s gone too far. Muscles on muscles, sinewy and lithe. That aesthetic exterior, though, is something of a facade. Romero is 40 years old, having come to MMA after a life spent in amateur wrestling, and after escaping Cuba.

He is 40, and time is of the essence. Prior to the fight, he spoke about winning the belt and bringing it back to Cuba to show his son he had to leave behind and whom he hasn’t seen for 11 years. For a while, it seemed like fate.

Still, even after Whittaker’s late takeover, the fight was up for grabs late in the fifth. It was a battle of wills, and Romero wasn’t ready to give in. Trying to escape Whittaker’s vaunted left hook, Romero slipped the punch but then slipped down to the mat. Whittaker pounced, draping himself on Romero and riding out most of the rest of the round while sealing his comeback.

Whittaker’s career arc isn’t a usual one for fighters who end up wearing gold. On the way up, he overcame an inconsistent opening to his UFC career and a misguided division switch. On the way to (interim) gold, he overcame an injury, a slow start and a rampaging Romero.

There have been plenty of places for him to quit, big moments for him to back away from, yet nothing seems to faze him. He’s quiet and polite, an anti-Bisping personality who fights with the same grit and resolve as the champ and who, because of it, earned the opportunity to surpass him.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Trailing and Injured, Robert Whittaker Defeated Yoel Romero and Fate

About 10 minutes into the most important fight of his life, things weren’t exactly going well for Robert Whittaker. He was trailing after losing each of the first two rounds, his opponent Yoel Romero had a documented history of dominating third rounds,…

About 10 minutes into the most important fight of his life, things weren’t exactly going well for Robert Whittaker. He was trailing after losing each of the first two rounds, his opponent Yoel Romero had a documented history of dominating third rounds, and worst of all, Whittaker was injured.

Sometime early in the first, Romero had hit him with a kick in the same left leg he had hurt in training, aggravating the injury. It is difficult enough facing a former Olympic wrestler on an eight-fight win streak. Now he had lost all room for error. 

It was one of those moments where Whittaker would have been well within the norm to believe everything had begun to slip away from him. To believe that because Romero was far older and had overcome so much more in life, that maybe this was meant to be his night.

After all, Whittaker is only 26. His future, it would be easy to reason, is still way in the future. There would be time to overcome a loss, especially to a rampaging Romero. 

So returning to his corner between rounds of the UFC 213 main event, how did he feel?

“It was unstable,” he said in his in-cage post-fight interview. “I know that Romero will capitalize on any weakness he sees, so I had to play it off. It’s pretty bad but champions are made of this stuff.”

No stability in his leg, no room for error, and for the final three rounds, Whittaker (19-4) rose to the occasion. For the final 15 minutes, he was as close to perfect as he needed to be. He controlled the volume, he shut down Romero’s wrestling, he sprinted to the finish line in the fifth when everything hung in the balance.

It was a championship performance, even if it was only the interim belt on the line. Truly, he may be the best middleweight in the world, above even current champion Michael Bisping.

“That was the most agonizing 15 minutes I’ve had,” Whittaker said. “But it’s unbelievable.”

Whittaker was the contender that most never saw coming. After winning his season of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes in 2012, Whittaker went 2-2 in his first four fights as a welterweight, eventually getting knocked out by Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.

As he tried to tread water, he came to realize that the weight cut was costing him more than it offered. After one more fight, he decided to abandon the cut in favor of competing at his more natural class of middleweight.

Unburdened by the change, he was immediately a revelation, tightening up his striking and earning back-to-back knockouts. It’s been onward and upward ever since, with Whittaker punching his ticket to the interim title fight after knocking out the Brazilian star Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. 

In some divisions, seven wins is enough for a title shot, but Whittaker needed the eighth. Now, after Saturday, the UFC finally said he would get to face champion Bisping later this year.

That’s the right call. Bisping hasn’t competed since escaping with a decision against 46-year-old Dan Henderson last October. Since then, he’s publicly flirted with Georges St-Pierre in a matchup that was promised, fell apart and has spent the last two weeks undergoing emergency resuscitation in hopes of being revived.

Still, if Bisping was going to fight any middleweight, it seemed up until Saturday night that it would be Romero, who was never shy about calling out Bisping, reminding him he was on the way to tangle.

The two had a built-in albeit mild feud that will have to be back-burnered for the kid who punctuated a remarkable streak with a remarkable ending. 

After two rounds, according to FightMetric, Romero (13-2) had out-landed Whittaker 63-17 and had converted three takedown tries. The rest of the way, Whittaker landed 77 strikes to Romero’s 51 and allowed only a single takedown out of eight attempts. 

While some were quick to point to Romero’s decreased output in the final three rounds, such an assessment fails to offer Whittaker credit for his early scrambling and ability to return to his feet quickly, forcing Romero to expend copious amounts of energy for little gain. 

“I knew he always tries to dictate the pace and control of the fight with wrestling,” Whittaker said on the Fox post-fight show. “He did surprise me with the volume of wrestling, but it took a toll on him. He tried to set a pace he couldn’t keep up with.”

Finally, it seems, we found something that Romero can’t do.

Prior to last night, it seemed he refused to subscribe to human bounds. He has a body that an artist might sculpt with clay and then think to himself that he’s gone too far. Muscles on muscles, sinewy and lithe. That aesthetic exterior, though, is something of a facade. Romero is 40 years old, having come to MMA after a life spent in amateur wrestling, and after escaping Cuba.

He is 40, and time is of the essence. Prior to the fight, he spoke about winning the belt and bringing it back to Cuba to show his son he had to leave behind and whom he hasn’t seen for 11 years. For a while, it seemed like fate.

Still, even after Whittaker’s late takeover, the fight was up for grabs late in the fifth. It was a battle of wills, and Romero wasn’t ready to give in. Trying to escape Whittaker’s vaunted left hook, Romero slipped the punch but then slipped down to the mat. Whittaker pounced, draping himself on Romero and riding out most of the rest of the round while sealing his comeback.

Whittaker’s career arc isn’t a usual one for fighters who end up wearing gold. On the way up, he overcame an inconsistent opening to his UFC career and a misguided division switch. On the way to (interim) gold, he overcame an injury, a slow start and a rampaging Romero.

There have been plenty of places for him to quit, big moments for him to back away from, yet nothing seems to faze him. He’s quiet and polite, an anti-Bisping personality who fights with the same grit and resolve as the champ and who, because of it, earned the opportunity to surpass him.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com