In today’s infinitely uncertain world, two things are certain: Conor McGregor is the biggest draw in the UFC, quite possibly in the entire history of the UFC, and anything he says is inevitably going to manifest itself into major news. In this tight-knit MMA community of ours, word-of-mouth ‘gossip’ tends to travel quickly, especially when the
In today’s infinitely uncertain world, two things are certain: Conor McGregor is the biggest draw in the UFC, quite possibly in the entire history of the UFC, and anything he says is inevitably going to manifest itself into major news.
In this tight-knit MMA community of ours, word-of-mouth ‘gossip’ tends to travel quickly, especially when the subject of said gossip (McGregor) has millions of social media fans and the virtual following of a nearly worldwide cult. So when “Notorious” went on his Twitter rant attacking multiple UFC fighters these past few days, namely Nate Diaz and his ‘garbage’ ground game at UFC 196, much of the MMA community took notice and fired back with some fightin’ words of their own.
An emerging ‘leader’ of this group, for now, appears to be former flyweight title challenger Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall. The eccentric wrestler tossed his hat into the ring when he let his thoughts on the whole McGregor debacle be known when he appeared as a guest on Sherdog Radio Network’s “Neutral Corner” with Yves Edwards.
When it comes to McGregor’s drawing power, McCall admittedly recognizes greatness when he sees it. However, when it comes to his “well-rounded” fighting skills, “Uncle Creepy” thinks that McGregor still leaves much to be desired when the action hits the mat.
“Conor McGregor is MMA’s biggest star, bigger than Ronda Rousey, bigger than even Chuck Liddell in his heyday…I think that he’s really good. He’s better than really good [at striking], but his jiu-jitsu is dog shit.”
After telling us how he really felt, he then dug a bit deeper, both into “Notorious’” fight with Nate Diaz and also again into his allegedly questionable ground game.
“I know Nate Diaz is a savage, but Conor didn’t do anything against Chad [Mendes] either. He got molested by Nate. Maybe his jiu-jitsu is really good. But for him to be a brown belt, that’s a slap in the face to someone like me who’s been a purple belt for 10 years.”
As you can probably tell, the unbounded legion of anti-McGregor activists are steadily growing and his erratic social media outbursts aren’t doing much in the way of slowing them down, let alone stopping them. If McGregor wants to turn the public sentimental tide back in his favor, a good start would be by putting down the phone and getting back into the gym, because Nate Diaz isn’t getting any smaller.
Stay tuned, because the Conor McGregor show has taken its place atop the 24-hour news cycle. And one more thing’s for certain, he’ll be back soon.
(I’ll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do… suspect me. They’re probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I’m not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching… they’ll see. They’ll see and they’ll know, and they’ll say, “Why, he wouldn’t even harm a fly…”)
After suffering the greatest loss of his storied mixed martial arts career last month — that of his dignity — when he was found nude inside a Mission Viejo church he had destroyed and doused with a fire extinguisher, it appears that charges are finally being pressed against former UFC/Strikeforce fighter and MTV psuedo-reality show hostJason Miller. And they are relatively modest considering both the circumstances of his arrest and the fact that this wasn’t Miller’s first rodeo, if you know what we mean; Miller is being charged with just one count of misdemeanor vandalism for his actions, and is set to appear in court on November 21st.
“Mayhem,” who was released from jail following a brief psychological evaluation, promised to his fans and those concerned that “everything was fine” and that he was “with people that love me, and hope that you will join me. If I ever hurt anyone, I am sorry,” in his first public statement, but hasn’t been heard from since. Fun fact: Miller was arrested almost one year to the day after his aforementioned arrest for putting his sister in a headlock. Apparently that August heat really does drive some people crazy.
Elsewhere on the MMA blotter…
(I’ll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do… suspect me. They’re probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I’m not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching… they’ll see. They’ll see and they’ll know, and they’ll say, “Why, he wouldn’t even harm a fly…”)
After suffering the greatest loss of his storied mixed martial arts career last month — that of his dignity — when he was found nude inside a Mission Viejo church he had destroyed and doused with a fire extinguisher, it appears that charges are finally being pressed against former UFC/Strikeforce fighter and MTV psuedo-reality show hostJason Miller. And they are relatively modest considering both the circumstances of his arrest and the fact that this wasn’t Miller’s first rodeo, if you know what we mean; Miller is being charged with just one count of misdemeanor vandalism for his actions, and is set to appear in court on November 21st.
“Mayhem,” who was released from jail following a brief psychological evaluation, promised to his fans and those concerned that “everything was fine” and that he was “with people that love me, and hope that you will join me. If I ever hurt anyone, I am sorry,” in his first public statement, but hasn’t been heard from since. Fun fact: Miller was arrested almost one year to the day after his aforementioned arrest for putting his sister in a headlock. Apparently that August heat really does drive some people crazy.
Elsewhere on the MMA blotter…
To say that the circumstances surrounding flyweight contender Ian McCall’s recent arrest were suspicious would be like saying that Ian McCall’s nickname is an accurate reflection of the vibe he gives off. The charges that were originally reported to be facing McCall ranged everywhere from possession of drug paraphernalia to driving on a suspended license and mislead the public into suspecting that McCall had fallen back into old habits.
When it turned out that the charges dated way back to a previous arrest in 2008 which McCall had failed to complete the terms of, “Uncle Creepy” was surprised to say the least, but claimed that the reasoning behind his arrest was much more sinister than we were originally led on, according to a recent interview during The MMA Hour:
They thought I was a drug dealer. Don’t know why. Well, actually, I know why. Someone that doesn’t like me told them I was a drug dealer. An actual drug dealer that doesn’t like me got busted — I’ve seen the paperwork — and said ‘oh, he’s a drug dealer too.’
And they came over to my house and they didn’t find any drugs, they didn’t find any text messages, they didn’t find anything bad. So they’re like ‘okay, you’re not a drug dealer, but your probation officer said to come get you anyways because you have a suspended license.
Oh, I see. The police used the classic method of dropping a fake bombshell to soften the blow for the actual bad news, a technique pioneered by the great Frank Reynolds. As much as I’d like to rake them over the coals for such tomfoolery, I used the same method to tell a former girlfriend of mine that she should get checked for HIV, when in fact I had only given her herpes, so who am I to judge?
And as was the case for me, McCall admits that the whole experience was “embarrassing”:
Them taking me away in front of my daughter and my wife. They tore my house apart, they tore my car apart. I guess they were following me from the gym, and they said, ‘oh, it would be more embarrassing if you got arrested in front of your gym.’ Well I’d much rather be arrested in front of my gym, where my coach is a lawyer, compared to me being arrested at my house, in front of my neighbors and my daughter. I don’t know. Cops are stupid, and they really just wanted to come to the house and search the house. But, again, I’m not a drug dealer and I’m not being charged with selling drugs.
Although McCall managed to get out 13 days early from this 30-day sentence, the trials and tribulations of Sir Floyd Mayweather have taught us that McCall’s stay likely depleted him physically to the point that he will never fight again, so we might as well start breaking out his highlight reels and call it a day…
…what’s that? McCall didn’t act like a trifling little bitch in jail, but simply served the time he was required to? You don’t say:
I couldn’t sleep in there. I got maybe like an hour of sleep a day, for the first ten days. I remember just sitting up and I was like, ‘what the hell am I doing here. I don’t belong here. This isn’t where I’m supposed to be right now. I’m should be at the gym, at least getting punched in the face, if not punching someone in the face. I’m supposed to be doing better things with my life, and creating a life for my family.
There’s nothing set in stone. I wanted to fight in November, but I think because of the UFC 151 debacle, I wont be able to fight until January. But there’s a lot of flyweight fights coming up until then, so, I don’t mean to be mean, but hopefully someone breaks a pinky toe or something so I can step in and hurt somebody.
Here’s hoping, Ian. Let’s just hope that toe break doesn’t look anything like this.
A community news and forum, Stu News Laguna reported Friday that UFC flyweight Ian McCall was arrested last Tuesday on some strange, if relatively benign, charges including “possession of narcotic paraphernalia, possession of prescription meds without a valid prescription, and driving on a suspended license,” after undercover DEA agents spotted him. According to a later report from MMA Weekly, however, McCall’s manager Jason House says that McCall’s arrest happened a bit differently and with different charges.
“According to House, McCall was driving home on Tuesday when an unmarked police car recognized his vehicle from past occurrences and pulled him over. The police ran McCall’s plates and they found an outstanding warrant in his name,” MMA Weekly reported.
“The warrant stemmed from a ticket issued in June for McCall driving under a suspended license. McCall apparently paid the fines, but did not make a scheduled court appearance due to a miscommunication and a warrant was issued.”
A community news and forum, Stu News Laguna reported Friday that UFC flyweight Ian McCall was arrested last Tuesday on some strange, if relatively benign, charges including “possession of narcotic paraphernalia, possession of prescription meds without a valid prescription, and driving on a suspended license,” after undercover DEA agents spotted him. According to a later report from MMA Weekly, however, McCall’s manager Jason House says that McCall’s arrest happened a bit differently and with different charges.
“According to House, McCall was driving home on Tuesday when an unmarked police car recognized his vehicle from past occurrences and pulled him over. The police ran McCall’s plates and they found an outstanding warrant in his name,” MMA Weekly reported.
“The warrant stemmed from a ticket issued in June for McCall driving under a suspended license. McCall apparently paid the fines, but did not make a scheduled court appearance due to a miscommunication and a warrant was issued.”
Well, that sounds a bit better, we suppose. After all, McCall has spoken publicly about his past struggles with drug abuse and while drug paraphernalia and excessive prescriptions are just downright American, they might not be the best thing for someone in recovery to have laying around.
The bad news for McCall is that he now has to spend a month in jail because he was on parole from past charges and a warrant was out in his name. His release date is scheduled for September 13th. His manager maintains that McCall has only been charged with driving under a suspended license.
McCall last fought Demetrius Johnson and lost a decision in the UFC flyweight tournament in June. He had to pull out of a fight on the UFC on Fox 4 card August 4th because of a knee injury.
In 2008, Ian was arrested for possession of prescription drugs without a
prescription and paraphernalia. The paraphernalia was needles that he used to
take the fluid out of his ears. Part of Ian’s punishment for that case was that
he was to do 20 days of Cal Trans (physical labor).
The following year, Ian was having more troubles and he entered and
completed a six-month residential drug treatment program at Nancy Clark’s The
Recovery Center in Orange County. Ian completely turned his life around, began
training hard and became the man he is today.
On June 14 of this year, Ian was pulled over for a traffic stop. He was
given a ticket for PC14601 (driving on a suspended license). Ian’s license had
been suspended for unpaid traffic and parking tickets.
The very next day, on June 15, Ian went to the Harbor Justice Center with
his agent, and paid over $2,600 in fines. He mistakenly thought that the ticket
from the previous day had been handled. A few weeks later, when the court date
for that case came, Ian did not show and a warrant was issued for his
arrest.
On Aug. 14, once again, Ian was stopped while driving home from the gym.
At that time he was arrested for the two warrants: one for not completing the
20 days of Cal Trans work for the 2008 case, and the other for not showing up to
court on the driving on a suspended license ticket that he had thought that he
had handled.
